Today we’ve released a new publication, produced with support from the Digital Infrastructure Insights Fund (DIIF): Building Sustainable Connectivity: Free and Open Source Software Adoption for Community-based Internet Providers. 

Supported by DIIF Building Sustainable Connectivity FOSS adoption for community-based internet providers Read the full report

The paper looks at how small, community-focused internet providers use free and open source software (FOSS) to run their networks, what’s holding them back from using more of it, and what a practical, open source technology stack for these providers could look like. It lands at a moment when open source is rising in the tech development agenda, in national digital strategies and international forums, as countries look to reduce the reliance on proprietary software in their national digital infrastructure.

Why we did this research

Small ISPs and community networks typically cover the ground where big telecom companies choose not to invest. Given the nature of these areas, ISPs are often left serving them with a fraction of the budget, and so free and open source software (FOSS) helps them make the numbers work. By understanding the barriers to using this software and how it can be made more useful and usable, there’s an opportunity to bring costs down for small ISPs so they can focus more resources on serving more people.

We were surprised how little had actually been documented about this. Providers rely on FOSS constantly, but nobody has systematically asked them what they use, why, and what’s stopping them from using more of it. So we did. We chose to focus the study on Brazil because the county has a large number of small ISPs (almost 20,000) which play a fundamental role in connecting rural and remote areas of the country. 

What we found

FOSS helps small providers in three ways: it cuts software costs directly, it keeps the hardware ecosystem around it affordable, and it’s backed by an entire informal network of tutorials, forums, and peer knowledge-sharing that teaches people how to use it without a vendor in the room.

However, we found that a lot of providers end up on cracked or unauthorized software because the legitimate options, proprietary or open source, are either priced for operators multiple times their size or are too hard to set up on their own. Billing and enterprise resource planning systems provide the clearest example. They’re the single biggest software cost these providers face, and no open source alternative built for their needs has ever stuck around.

The barriers to wider FOSS adoption mostly aren’t technical, but about documentation, language support, coordinated development, and who’s responsible for keeping it running. While our research was based on small ISPs and community-based networks operating in Brazil, the same challenges small providers run into wherever they operate, be that Kenya, Indonesia, or rural Appalachia.

A software stack

Alongside the findings, we’ve published a suggested open source technology stack: sixteen categories covering routing, monitoring, billing, DNS, and everything in between, built with input from open source specialists who work with connectivity challenges daily. We deliberately built it on tools that are mature, globally available, and not tied to one country’s regulatory environment. Some pieces, particularly around billing and compliance, will need local adaptation. The core of it should hold up anywhere a small provider is trying to build a network without a large vendor’s budget.

Support for this work

This project was made possible with support from the Digital Infrastructure Insights Fund (DIIF), a multi-funder initiative of the Ford Foundation and Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, hosted by Aspiration. DIIF backs research on open digital infrastructure in the public interest, and this report wouldn’t exist without them.

If you work with small ISPs, community networks, or digital inclusion policy anywhere in the world, take a look.