Nearly three-quarters of humans over the age of 10 in 2022 will have a mobile phone facilitating Internet access, and nearly a third of the world’s population is still deprived of this international network, the UN said on Wednesday.
“Mobile phones are the most common gateway to the Internet, and ownership rates serve as an indicator of Internet availability and access,” writes the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) in its annual report on the global connectivity.
However, not all mobile phone owners have access to the Web, especially in low-income countries, where broadband is often too expensive.
According to figures collected by the ITU, 95% of people living in rich countries have a mobile phone, while in underprivileged countries the penetration rate drops to 49%.
“Digital Darkness”
Internet access is progressing, but less quickly, following the jump recorded during the coronavirus pandemic. COVID-19 and its lockdowns, which have forced hundreds of millions of people to work or study online.
Today, an estimated 5.3 billion people, or 66% of the world’s population, use the Internet. Almost all of those who are not connected are in the poorest countries.
This percentage has continued to increase in recent years and experienced a strong “bump” in 2020, ITU chief economist Thierry Geiger told AFP.
However, there is still a long way to go, because “too many people still live in digital darkness”, said Doreen Bogdan-Martin, who in early 2023 will become the first woman to lead this agency.
“Internet access is growing, but not as quickly and evenly around the world as it should be,” she added in a statement to the report.
The cost
A benchmark measure of web access is the median price of mobile broadband services, which are often less expensive than fixed access.
These median prices have fallen from 1.9% of gross national income per capita to 1.5% in 2022. But the cost is still too high for many consumers in low-income countries, where a basic package of mobile data costs 9% of average income.
This is far more than the percentage paid in wealthy countries for similar services, according to the ITU, which has called on all countries to ensure affordable broadband access, which it defines as costing less than 2% of national income monthly gross per capita.
“We need to keep the Internet accessible even as the recession global economy is hurting the economic prospects of many countries,” outgoing ITU chief Houlin Zhao said in the statement.
Geiger points out that while the cost of connectivity appears to continue to fall, rising prices for basic necessities might force many people to go offline.
Even though internet access is increasingly seen as an essential service, “food still prevails”, he said. We will have to wait until next year to see the possible effects of the current crisis.
The digital divide persists between rich and poor, and also between genders.
While women make up around half of the world’s population, some 259 million fewer than men have internet access, and only 63% of women go online compared to 69% of men, the report says.
