A Global Extranet? BandZ’s Solution to Inaccessible, Low Quality and Costly Internet Service

When I was to sign up for steemit, my phone’s native browser denied me personalised access. After using my laptop to sign up, i still could not access my account from my mobile which was supposed to be handy. I was frustrated.

However, weeks into my steemit journey, I discovered that I could go through the private browser. Eureka! This meant that I had to input my passwords for every action I took and could not stay logged in. It was tedious and time-wasting, but I would bear it.

But it got worse. I waited for what looked like minutes each time I clicked on 'upvote,’ ‘resteem,’ 'reply’ or 'transfer’ before the update would reflect. The browser was amazingly slow!

I resigned to fate, attributing this annoying phenomenon still to the settings inputted by my device's developers, until I participated in a promo by an Internet Service Provider and saw my browser responding fast. What a surprise! It was then I realised that I had been getting poor internet service from my chosen network! I crossed to the new company with better service, which subsequently cost me an additional 30%.

Let me share another experience:

I moved house some two years ago. I soon discovered that most parts of my new location were not covered by the network company that I been using. Before long, connection in those spots too became very erratic. Eventually, I had to change to a more expensive network that had better coverage of the area.

Experiences like this are rife. Oftentimes, internet connectivity is either inaccessible, problematic, expensive to access, or all three!

What is the way forward? BandZ, a blockchain company says it is working on creating a global extranet where users can connect with each other directly and be able to share or transfer data.

According to the company's Whitepaper, the poor quality of internet service currently being experienced by users given is a direct fallout of the low grade infrastructure used by internet Service Providers. The paper asserts that there is urgent need for an upgrade of infrastructure to meet the rapidly growing number of internet users. However, it explains that this would be a costly and time-consuming exercise and proffers a faster and more efficient solution.

The project is based on the team’s research work at the prestigious Korean Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAST), Daejeon.

This article takes an in-depth look at the problems associated with internet access, how BandZ aims to improve current internet services and how consumers can access it.

Current Problems with Internet Accessibility

1. Internet is not universally accessible
Some places are totally exempted from the coverage of internet service providers while some others have limited connectivity. Users who reside in these places or visit them are automatically without internet access.This is massively seen in developing countries.

Though far less common, some localities are also cut off from the internet in the developed countries. This is a usual experience in quiet holiday resorts.

2. Internet access is costly
Access to the internet is both rare and expensive in many developing countries. Unlike in developed countries, internet usage has to be completely paid for privately. Wi-fi in public places are a rarity. The cost of access is cutting off so many people from benefitting from the opportunities opened by the internet.

In its Internet for All report, The World Economic Forum reports that all households in only 29 of the countries in the world could afford broadband connectivity.

** Roaming is expensive**
When people travel to other parts of the world, outside the coverage of their home networks, their usual mobile lines typically become redundant. Only those who can afford to roam their telephone numbers do so as roaming is expensive. Most others have to purchase new sims to be in touch with their friends and family.

3.Low quality service

The implication of the World Economic Forum’s report is that most of the people who had access to the internet had low-grade connection as they could not afford premium service! And indeed, internet service is often erratic and slow if you are not paying through your nose for it.

**4. Insecure VPN
VPN users cannot trust service providers. Whereas people use VPN to access sites under anonimity, they are often required to purchase and register to use the VPNs. Such users are exposed to the risk of corrupt VPN providers selling their data for gain.

A Global Extranet
BandZ plans to bypass the infrastructural bottleneck being experienced by ISPs. While an estimated 63,656 Internet Service Provider businesses 1 currently serve the 4.1billion global internet users 2 at roughly 1 provider to 64,400 people, The BandZ platform would be a decentralized platform powered by the blockchain. It will comprise of several individual intranets in various part of the world and each user, irrespective of global location would be empowered as intranet.

The blockchain
The blockchain is reputed for decentralisation, trust and transparency. As has been experienced first with the internet and later with the blockchain, one of the key benefits of decentralization is that it creates a significantly cheaper system. With the elimination of the third party providers, internet access will be cheaper. Apart from decentralization, the blockchain technology will also be used to track exchange on the platform.

BandZ Products and their benefits
BandZ will solve the problems associated with internet service provision with her accessible, affordable and secure enterprise grade software products. Users can purchase the following products with the BandZ token.

(I)Bandwidth sharing/exchange
Essentially, users on the platform will be able to exchange bandwidth which is a measure of internet data for use, with other users. By sharing bandwidth, everyone has access to the internet. This is in contrast with what is currently operational where ISPs provide each consumer with data directly and is a lot of burden on the existing Infrastructure.

Individuals signed up can log on to the platform at anytime and make use of their purchased bandwidth to access the internet from anywhere in the world. They can also sell bandwidth to others in any part of the world.

With this, there will be no need for roaming with its costly charges.

People can also now access the internet from places that previously had no coverage.

(II) Mesh networks
The individual smart devices will connect to form a wireless network. This will help to reduce the current congestion and improve connection.

(III) Remote proxies

(IV) VPN security
BandZ VPN will give VPN users true anonymity. With BandZ, VPN usage will be truly private. Consumers do not have to register or make payments, hence there will be no risk of expose of their identities by corrupt VPN service providers. With bandZ, there will be no third party VPN providers. VPNs have also been known to contain malware, so users will not have to worry about that.

Tokens
The BandZ token will be used for transaction on the platform. It is expected that as bandwidth becomes more accessible, the value of the token will rise compared to other currencies and each token will be worth more.

The BandZ Roadmap

Q1 2018
Proof of concept, website launch, marketing, community engagement, private sale

Q2 - Q3 2018
Public ICO, Testnet, Wallet and Exchange Testing

Q4 2018
Mainnet, BandZ mobile SDK, Open source

Q1 2019
TOR level anonymity, Stability

Q2-3 2019
ISPs inteoperabilty

Team
The BandZ team is made up of highly experienced entrepreneurs and developers.

BandZ will make high quality internet service accessible to all globally, regardless of geographical location, and at an affordable rate.

Stay current with the project through its various news/social media platforms:

Website
Whitepaper
Telegram

This is my submission for the BandZ sponsored @originalworks contest

bandz2018