Roughly 2.9 billion people still lack access to the internet. For children in remote communities, this digital divide means being cut off from educational resources, teacher training platforms, and digital learning tools that students in connected regions take for granted. The gap is widest where it matters most: in the schools themselves.
Giga, a joint initiative launched by UNICEF and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in 2019, set out to solve a deceptively simple problem: map every school on Earth and connect each one to the internet. The challenge is that millions of schools, particularly in low-income countries, have never been recorded in any government database. You cannot connect what you cannot find.
Finding Schools from Space
Giga's approach begins with machine learning models trained to identify school buildings from high-resolution satellite imagery. The AI analyzes building shape, rooftop material, proximity to roads, and surrounding land use to distinguish schools from other structures. The system has achieved over 95% accuracy, even in dense urban areas and remote rural landscapes where schools may be little more than a single room with a tin roof.
To date, Giga has mapped more than 2 million schools across over 140 countries. Each is geolocated with precise coordinates, verified against government records, and added to an open-access database for planning and investment decisions.
The mapping revealed something long suspected but never quantified: millions of schools were simply missing from official records. They existed physically but were invisible to the institutions responsible for funding and equipping them. By making these schools visible, Giga gave governments the data they needed to address infrastructure gaps.
From Mapping to Connecting
Knowing where schools are is only the first step. Giga works with governments and telecom companies to design connectivity solutions tailored to each country's infrastructure. In some cases, this means extending fiber networks. In others, it means deploying satellite or fixed wireless to schools hundreds of kilometers from the nearest cell tower.
Major partners include Ericsson, which provides network design expertise, and Softbank, which has contributed funding and satellite resources. Multiple national governments have integrated Giga's data into their broadband plans, using it to prioritize investment where the gap is greatest.
Project Magnet: Optimizing Connectivity with AI
One of Giga's most ambitious components is Project Magnet, an AI-powered tool that estimates connectivity costs and optimal network routing for unconnected schools. It ingests data on existing infrastructure, terrain, population density, and energy availability to model scenarios and recommend the most cost-effective approach for each location.
For governments with limited budgets, Project Magnet answers questions that previously required months of field surveys. Which schools can be connected cheaply by extending fiber? Where does satellite make more sense? What is the minimum investment to connect every school in a region? These estimates move decision-makers from aspiration to actionable plans.
The Scale of the Challenge
Of roughly 6 million schools worldwide, a significant portion still lack any connectivity. In sub-Saharan Africa, fewer than 20% of schools are connected. The hardest-to-reach schools are often those serving the most vulnerable children: in conflict zones, remote highlands, island communities, and informal settlements.
Connectivity alone does not guarantee better outcomes. Schools also need devices, trained teachers, and reliable electricity. But without connectivity, none of the digital tools transforming education elsewhere can reach these students. Giga frames school connectivity as a foundational layer and prerequisite for everything else.
Open Data and Transparency
Giga publishes its data through an open platform. This allows researchers to study the link between connectivity and outcomes, enables telecom companies to identify opportunities in underserved areas, and creates accountability by making it possible to track whether commitments are being fulfilled.
Giga has also built real-time monitoring that tracks connection quality at mapped schools. A school connected on paper may have a connection so slow it is effectively useless. By measuring actual performance, Giga ensures investments translate into meaningful access.
Two million schools mapped. Over 140 countries covered. An AI system that spots school buildings from orbit with 95% accuracy. Giga has not yet connected every school, and its leaders acknowledge how much work remains. But they have built something no one had before: a comprehensive, data-driven picture of where the world's schools are and what it will take to bring them online. The map is the first step. The connections will follow.
Sources: UNICEF Giga initiative official reports and data portal; ITU connectivity statistics; Giga Project Magnet technical documentation; Ericsson and Softbank partnership announcements; UNICEF "Reimagine Education" progress reports; World Bank school connectivity data; Giga open-source AI model publications.
