There's tons of stuff on this, but, eg., here's a poster from USAID:
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/09/35/2d/0935...
To be clear, it's good that people have access to the internet and all the interconnectivity that it brings. I'm not slamming the basic premise.
What I'm angry about is the opportunity cost. Telecoms & ISPs roll out bare minimums and say "hey look, now poor people can [cherry-picked thing that doesn't alleviate poverty]" when the real question is how we live in the most prosperous nation of all time, in an era when we have solved every basic necessity, and kids still experience food insecurity in American cities. Meanwhile, telecom CEOs merge back into monopolies.
Dramatic improvement in the lives of the poor would yield better metrics than a 30% increase in Haitians using mobile banking. Christ, half of that increase could be from unconnected citizens dying from endemic disease & reducing the denominator.
http://www.ictworks.org/2016/06/27/yes-farmers-do-use-mobile...
Etc. And that's just easily measured benefits. There's good reasons why more people in Africa have access to cell phones than to clean water.
I suppose the poor are no longer subject to long-distance fees during daytime.