Sub-Saharan Africa remains the region with the lowest mobile internet usage, with only 25% of the population online.
This is according to the annual State of Mobile Internet Connectivity report from the GSM Association (GSMA), the global industry body for the mobile sector.
The findings draw on the GSMA Consumer Survey, the GSMA Mobile Connectivity Index and other industry reports.
The GSMA notes that despite steady global progress in mobile connectivity, more than three billion people remain unconnected to mobile internet services.
The report states that 4.7 billion people, or 58% of the world’s population, now use mobile internet services on their own devices.
However, despite 96% of the global population living in areas with mobile internet coverage available to them, 3.1 billion people are still not using it.
These people – 38% of the world’s population – sit within what is known as the “usage gap”, with barriers other than coverage availability keeping them offline, says the association.
The GSMA highlights that a further 300 million people (4% of the global population) live in what is labelled the “coverage gap”, lacking any available mobile internet connectivity.
This means that 3.4 billion people globally remained unconnected to mobile internet services in 2024, with the overwhelming majority living in areas where coverage is available but remains underused.
Device affordability challenge
The association points out that mobile is the primary, and often the only, way people in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) access the internet, now accounting for 84% of global internet connections. The vast majority (93%) of the unconnected live in LMICs.
Across LMICs, the affordability of an entry-level, internet-enabled device has remained relatively unchanged since 2021, representing 16% of average monthly income and rising to 48% for the poorest 20%.
Vivek Badrinath, director-general of the GSMA, comments: “A device at $30 (R525) could make handsets affordable to up to 1.6 billion people who are currently priced out of connecting to available mobile internet coverage.
“To produce this will require a concerted, collaborative effort between the mobile industry, device manufacturers, policy-makers, financial institutions and more, but it is a responsibility we all must shoulder.
“Getting online has undeniable socio-economic benefits to individuals and societies. Essential services such as healthcare, education and banking are now most commonly accessed online, and for billions of people this primarily means on mobile. In 96% of the world, the infrastructure is in place for people to get online via mobile.
“Removing the remaining barriers is essential to ensuring existing digital divides are reduced rather than deepened and many more of these 3.1 billion people can benefit from life-changing connectivity.”
According to the GSMA, rates of mobile internet adoption in 2024 remained relatively unchanged in most regions except East Asia and Pacific and Latin America and the Caribbean, where modest gains were recorded. Southeast Asia saw the highest percentage increase in adoption.
The report also reveals that the majority of gains in mobile broadband coverage across LMICs are being achieved by upgrading 2G sites. Yet, more than half of those still outside the reach of a mobile broadband network − around 170 million people − live in areas with no existing mobile infrastructure. Reaching these areas is challenging due to the high costs of deploying physical infrastructure.
5G reaches half of the world
The GSMA adds that 4G deployments have slowed, while 5G now covers more than half of the world’s population.
“Almost 7.6 billion people worldwide now have 4G coverage, equivalent to 93% of the global population. The majority of network investment continues to be in 5G deployments. 5G coverage has now reached more than half the world’s population (54% or 4.4 billion people), with more than 700 million additional people covered in 2024.”
It also notes that the sunsetting of legacy networks is ongoing, though not uniform across all regions. South Africa has set a 2027 deadline to switch off legacy networks.
“Given declining traffic on 2G and 3G networks, combined with the financial burden of maintaining legacy infrastructure and the need to use spectrum efficiently, many operators have either shut down, or are in the process of sunsetting 2G and 3G networks,” the GSMA says.
By the end of 2024, there had been 169 2G and 3G sunsets in 75 countries, nearly three-quarters of which followed the launch of 5G.
However, the speed of transition differs by region. In Sub-Saharan Africa, 3G remains the dominant technology, with only one country − South Africa − currently planning to sunset both its 2G and 3G networks.
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