SONIC: Cost-Effective Web Access for Developing Countries

TL;DR

SONIC is a low-cost, scalable web delivery system using FM radio and SMS, designed to provide Internet access in developing regions with infrastructure limitations, demonstrating effective content transmission and user engagement.

Contribution

We introduce SONIC, a novel system leveraging FM radio and SMS for affordable, reliable web access tailored for developing countries, with deployment and performance evaluation in Cameroon.

Findings

Achieved 10 kbps downlink throughput

Less than 20% data loss at good signal strength

High user engagement with Web and ChatGPT interactions

Abstract

Over 2.6 billion people remain without access to the Internet in 2025. This phenomenon is especially pronounced in developing regions, where cost and infrastructure limitations are major barriers to connectivity. In response, we design SONIC, a low-cost, scalable data delivery system that builds on existing infrastructures: FM radio for downlink broadcasting, and SMS for personalized uplink. SONIC is motivated by the widespread availability of FM radio and SMS infrastructure in developing regions, along with embedded FM radio tuners in affordable mobile phones. SONIC offers several innovations to effectively transmit Web content over sound over FM radio, in a reliable and compressed form. For example, we transmit pre-rendered webpages and leverage pixel interpolation to recover errors at the receiver. We further modify Android to offer a simpler deployment pipeline, supporting a wide range of devices. We deployed SONIC at an FM radio station in Cameroon for six weeks with 30 participants. Our results demonstrate a sustained downlink throughput of 10 kbps, less than 20% loss for a majority of transmissions with signal strength above -90 dbM, and a strong user engagement across both Web browsing and ChatGPT interactions.