Broadband takes the footpath in poor countries

While the rapid spread of information and communication technologies (ICTs) around the world, especially mobile phones, is beating the expectations of most experts, there is a widening gap between the developed and developing worlds in the availability of broadband Internet access, and greater efforts are needed to narrow the divide, according to the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).

Broadband user

A person in a developed country is eight times more likely to be a broadband user than someone in a developing country, UNCTAD said in its “Information Economy Report 2009” released late last month.

“There is still a long way to go before we can claim to have significantly narrowed the digital divide’ to achieve an information society for all. Wide gaps in ICT infrastructure remain, not least in the case of broadband networks,” says UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon.

While the digital inequality is shrinking, the gap varies by type of information and communication technology.

Comparing the diffusion of the different ICTs with the distribution of income in the world shows that mobile telephony (cellular phones) has become the most equitably distributed ICT.

At the end of 2008, there were about 4 billion mobile subscriptions worldwide.

(According to data released recently by the International Telecommunications Union, the number of mobile subscriptions is estimated to rise to 4.6 billion subscriptions globally by the end of 2009.)

On average, there are 60 subscriptions per 100 inhabitants, the UNCTAD report states.

Developing countries account for two-thirds of all subscriptions, corresponding to a mobile penetration rate of about 50.

In many countries, including developing and transition economies, mobile penetration exceeds 100 subscriptions per 100 inhabitants.

The LDCs raised their mobile penetration from two per 100 inhabitants in 2003 to 20 in 2008.

The penetration in developing countries is now eight times higher than it was at the turn of the century.

Growth in subscriptions was lower but remained close to the 20 per cent of 2008.

According to the report, the share of population covered by a mobile signal stood at 76 per cent in developing countries in 2006, including 61 per cent in rural areas.