Steve Song is an advocate for cheaper, more pervasive access to the communication infrastructure in Africa. He is the founder of Village Telco, a social enterprise that builds low-cost WiFi mesh VoIP technologies to deliver affordable voice and Internet service in underserviced areas. Village Telco was incubated during a three-year fellowship that Steve spent at the Shuttleworth Foundation in South Africa. Steve also works with the Network Startup Resource Center (NSRC) to develop strategies for expanding the utilization of wireless technologies through shared spectrum strategies to enable more Internet access in Africa and other emerging market regions. Previously, Steve worked at the International Development Research Centre, where he led the organization’s Information and Communication Technology for Development program in Africa, funding research into the transformational potential of ICTs across the continent.
