When we talk about “connecting the unconnected,” the conversation usually revolves around infrastructure—laying fiber cables, deploying community Wi-Fi, or optimizing spectrum. However, an often-overlooked reality is that meaningful connectivity relies just as heavily on what is in the user’s hands: affordable, functional, and maintainable devices.
Recently, at the Global Access to the Internet for All (GAIA) session during IETF 125, Leandro Navarro (UPC, Pangea, eReuse, ISOC.CAT) took the floor to address this exact challenge. He presented the Internet-Draft: draft-gaia-circular-device-practices, which shifts the focus from purely building networks to sustainably managing the hardware that accesses them.
📺 Watch the full GAIA session and Leandro’s presentation here
The missing link in meaningful connectivity
In underserved and rural communities, limited access to devices—laptops, smartphones, and even local networking equipment like routers—is one of the primary barriers to digital inclusion. Even if a community network is successfully deployed, it provides little value if community members cannot afford the devices required to use it, or if those devices break down with no local means of repair.
To solve this, Navarro and his co-authors (Mireia Roura, Eduardo Rodriguez, and Viviana Ambrosi) propose systematizing Circular Device Management.
What is circular device management?
Drawing on years of operational experience from community-centered deployments across Spain, Argentina, and Senegal (including initiatives like eReuse.org, WEEE plant by Tau, EKOA at UNLP, and Hahatay.org), the draft outlines practical steps to extend the lifecycle of digital devices. Rather than a linear “take-make-dispose” model, circular management embraces:
- Local Repair & Refurbishment: Building local capacity and skills so communities can maintain and fix their own equipment.
- Devices as a Commons: Moving away from strict individual ownership to community-governed pools of devices, ensuring they are shared, tracked, and reused to their maximum potential.
- Traceability & Data Security: Utilizing federated registries and secure data sanitization to safely redistribute second-hand devices.
- Responsible End-of-Life: Ensuring that when a device finally dies, it is recycled properly, keeping toxic e-waste out of vulnerable environments.
Why this matters for the future of the Internet
The impact of these practices goes far beyond reducing e-waste and lowering carbon footprints. By cultivating local repair ecosystems and treating devices as community assets, circular management fosters Digital Sovereignty (autonomy). It reduces a community’s dependence on external supply chains, lowers the economic barrier to internet access, and empowers locals to build and maintain their own digital autonomy.
If you are a network engineer, a community organizer, or simply someone passionate about sustainable tech and digital equity, this presentation is highly recommended. It serves as a powerful reminder that hardware lifecycles are a foundational architectural component of the internet.
Dive into the discussion: