The father of the world wide web and some of the internet's most influential interests are joining forces to drive the cost of universal broadband access down and eliminate the world's digital divide.

Sir Tim Berners-Lee, Google, Facebook, Yahoo!, Microsoft, Intel and a number of other technology companies and suppliers will launch the Association for Affordable Internet on Monday.

Tim Berners-Lee says the bottleneck in universal broadband access is anti-competitive policies that keep prices unaffordable. Credit:Philippe Desmazes

The governments of Sweden and the US, as well as several charitable foundations and research organisations in the UK, Brazil, Africa and Latin America are also involved.

The group chose Nigeria as its launchpad highlighting the need for open, competitive and innovative broadband pricing in all markets. It wants to help access prices fall to below 5 per cent of monthly income worldwide, a target set by the UN Broadband Commission.