We need fresh investment models to unlock the power of ICT connectivity that fuels growth in today's digital economy.
This is according to a recent International Telecommunication Union (ITU) paper released at the World Economic Forum Davos annual meeting, aimed to increase awareness of who the next billion to be connected are and where they reside. The Alliance for Affordable Internet (A4AI) 2015-16 Affordability Report, says it will take 26 years to make universal Internet access a reality for all.
There are still some 3.9 billion people, more than half the world's population, who have never been online and are therefore excluded from all the knowledge and opportunities that are so readily accessible to nearly half the world, says ITU. Moreover, the offline population is disproportionately female (58%), rural (60%) and poor, it adds. The paper says four-fifths of the offline population are located in Asia-Pacific and in Africa. "This data must translate into future national connectivity action plans that ensure gender equality (in terms of access, skills and opportunities) and that the rural poor are fully included," says ITU.
The paper notes while infrastructure gaps are still a key reason for being offline, including supporting infrastructure such as power, it is the demand-side barriers including the lack of capability (ICT skills and know-how and basic literacy), relevance (content, services and apps, cultural awareness or barriers such as gender, inclusion) and affordability (service and device costs as well as costs of electricity for recharging and taxes that should be given increased attention.
ITU data shows 84% of world population live within coverage of 3G, 53% live within coverage of 4G networks and while 66% of world population live within a 100km reach of fibre transmission networks. However, only 39% of total population have 3G or 4G connections and only 11% have fixed broadband subscriptions. Therefore, there is not only an infrastructure or access gap, but also an Internet usage gap, it says.
The study says while a significant amount of initiatives have been implemented across all of the key Internet adoption barriers to tackle the key reasons for unconnectedness, a big number of people will remain unconnected and connectivity targets such as the ITU's Connect 2020 Agenda Targets will not be met. The key challenges to meet the Connect 2020 Agenda Targets are finding solutions to connecting in particular the large rural offline populations at minimal costs, and finding effective strategies for narrowing the usage gaps (including the gender gap) across all regions.
Given that replicable rural solutions are unlikely to be deployed at scale and at low or no cost within the next three years, the default profile of people to come online by 2020 includes people from more urban areas or areas that are already within reach of infrastructure and people that are not among the very poor, says ITU. As a result, the key barriers that need to be tackled in a pragmatic and effective way to push the online population closer to Connect 2020 Agenda Targets are relevance, affordability and capability, with a specific focus on women, it adds.
Moreover, to improve and develop better targeted policies and create new partnerships going forward, more granular data has to be collected at a disaggregate level, and ongoing initiatives should be mapped and assessed as to their impact, effectiveness and possible replicability for each of the Internet adoption barriers, says ITU.
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