Internet connectivity is an essential factor for human development. Unfortunately, connectivity opportunities differ drastically among regions. While people in urban areas of the developed world enjoy always-on, high-bandwidth connectivity, those residing in rural areas of the developing world often have very slow and intermittent, or no connectivity at all.

In this dissertation we propose a holistic approach that aims to improve local and global connectivity of rural, underdeveloped regions. First, we perform an in-depth analysis of the usage of existing technologies in one of the world's most infrastructure-deprived regions --- rural Africa. Our analysis is based on on-site interviews and network traffic analyses from two sub-Saharan villages. Our findings show that the current technology does not successfully tackle unique challenges of rural area networking, such as the need to cover vast underpopulated areas, and operate with low energy resources. In addition, we find that the specific ways the Internet is used in rural areas calls for re-engineering of online applications so that they are made appropriate to the needs of the local population.

The analysis results serve as guidelines for developing novel networking solutions for rural regions. To cover vast under-populated areas we propose long-range wireless networks operating in the white space spectrum. For this spectrum we develop PowerRate and WhiteRate, rate adaptation protocols geared towards optimal utilization of limited energy and spectrum resources, and support for critical voice and video, applications. For white space network organization we propose VillageLink, a protocol for channel allocation in a multiuser system. To reduce unnecessary communication delay, symptomatic for rural networks, we propose a suite of network traffic localization techniques: VillageCell, a low-cost, low-power, community-owned cell phone infrastructure, and VillageShare, a network traffic localization system that facilitates file sharing within a community. We also develop a novel distributed online social network architecture which harnesses locality of interactions to improve user experience and preserve bandwidth in remote regions.

Finally, we strive to go beyond pilots, and, through collaborative work with local stakeholders and researchers, create solutions that will become integral parts of everyday life in rural areas.