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South Africa's first rural cooperative-owned ISP, Zenzeleni built a solar WiFi mesh network in Mankosi, Eastern Cape, selling access far …
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Net Pracharat – Village Broadband Internet Project
Thailand · Bangkok · See the Thailand profile
Thailand laid fibre broadband to 24,700 rural villages, paired with cascade digital-literacy training reaching 1.2 million people by 2018 and 13.6 million Wi-Fi users by 2025 - though research finds rural elderly still lag far behind in digital skills.
24,700
Villages connected with fibre and free Wi-Fi (2016–2017)
1.2 million
People reached by cascade digital-literacy training (by 2018)
6.6M → 13.6M+
Registered public Wi-Fi users (2019–2025)
Details
- Maturity
- Established
- Promoter
- Ministry of Digital Economy and Society (Thailand)
- Period
- 2016-ongoing
- Keywords
- rural broadband, digital literacy training, public wifi, e-government access, elderly digital divide
Context
Launched in 2016 by Thailand's Ministry of Digital Economy and Society with state operator TOT, Net Pracharat laid fibre-optic cable and free public Wi-Fi into 24,700 rural villages by December 2017, paired with a train-the-trainer digital-literacy programme covering internet basics, e-commerce and government e-services.
Results
Around 1,000 teacher-trainers trained roughly 100,000 community leaders, cascading training to a reported 1.2 million people by September 2018. Registered public Wi-Fi users grew from about 6.6 million (2019) to over 13.6 million (January 2025). Independent Thai research finds rural elderly still lag: only ~62% of over-60s have internet access, falling under 15% for those 75 and older.
Implementation
Implementation detail (cost, timeline, staffing, conditions for success) is not yet available for this practice.
Data sources
Where this practice's information was retrieved from, and when.
- C-NAPSE web research — accessed 2026-07-03
- Ministry of Digital Economy and Society (Thailand) — accessed 2026-07-03
- Asia-Pacific Telecommunity best-practice report on Net Pracharat (MDES co-published) — accessed 2026-07-03
- The Nation Thailand - digital infrastructure coverage — accessed 2026-07-03
Attachments
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