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Info Service on WTO and Trade Issues (Dec23/08) Penang, 13 Dec (Kanaga Raja) — While steady but uneven progress is being made in global Internet connectivity, the digital divide still persists, leaving the people in low-income countries behind, according to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). In its latest Facts and Figures 2023 report, the ITU said that its analysis of Internet data usage shows that fixed- broadband services accounted for over 80 per cent of global Internet traffic in 2022. The volume of Internet traffic across fixed-broadband networks, which remain common in office and home settings, far exceeds that of mobile-broadband networks, it added. However, the ITU said that the dominance of the fixed networks underscores the global connectivity disparity between high- and low-income countries, with only one fixed-broadband subscription per 100 people in the low- income countries due to high prices and a lack of infrastructure. INTERNET USAGE According to the ITU report, approximately sixty-seven per cent of the world’s population, or 5.4 billion people, is now online. This represents a growth of 4.7 per cent since 2022, an increase from the 3.5 per cent recorded from 2021 to 2022. The number of people offline in 2023 decreased to an estimated 2.6 billion people, representing 33 per cent of the global population, said the report. Noting that Internet use remains tightly linked to the level of a country’s development, it said in 2020, nine out of ten people in high-income countries used the Internet. In 2023, the share edged up to 93 per cent, getting closer to universality. It said in low-income countries, 27 per cent of the population uses the Internet, up from 24 per cent in 2022. However, the report said the 66 percentage point gap reflects the width of the digital divide between high-income and low-income countries and regions. In low-income countries, the number of Internet users has grown by 44.1 per cent since 2020, and by 14.3 per cent in the past year alone. This is encouraging but it is being measured from a very low initial number of users, it said. By comparison, the report said the number of Internet users in high-income countries has increased by just 1.1 per cent during the same period, although this is to be expected considering that 93 out of every 100 people in this group of countries are already online. It said that in Europe, the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and the Americas, between 87 and 91 per cent of the population uses the Internet, which is approaching universal use (defined for practical purposes as an Internet penetration rate of at least 95 per cent). “Approximately two-thirds of the population in the Arab States and Asia-Pacific regions (69 and 66 per cent, respectively) use the Internet, in line with the global average, while the average for Africa is just 37 per cent of the population.” The report also said that universal connectivity remains a distant prospect in the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) and Landlocked Developing Countries (LLDCs), where only 35 and 39 per cent of the population are online, respectively. Highlighting the gender digital divide, the report said: “Worldwide, 70 per cent of men are using the Internet, compared with 65 per cent of women. This means that globally, there are 244 million more men than women using the Internet in 2023.” It said parity is achieved when the gender parity score, defined as the share of women using the Internet divided by the share of men using the Internet, is between 0.98 and 1.02. The world population has been inching gently towards parity, with the score increasing from 0.90 in 2019 to 0.92 in 2023, it added. The report said that while women account for roughly half of the population, they account for a disproportionate – and increasing – share of the global offline population: women now outnumber male non-Internet users by 17 per cent, up from 11 per cent in 2019. Generally, the regions with the highest Internet use also have the highest gender parity scores, the report said. For instance, in the Americas, the CIS, and Europe, gender parity has been achieved or almost achieved, while the Asia-Pacific score is now above the 0.9 mark. Progression of this score has been the strongest in the Arab States region, where the score improved from 0.79 in 2019, to 0.87 in 2023. However, the report said that the Africa region continues to lag other regions by a sizeable margin despite some improvement, where roughly four in ten men and three in ten women use the Internet. “Least developed countries continue to exhibit low levels of Internet use and to generate low gender parity scores despite having made noticeable progress in recent years in both usage and gender parity. Landlocked developing countries have shown only limited progress towards gender parity since 2019.” While gender parity scores and Internet penetration rates tend to be correlated, small island developing States (SIDS), where two-thirds of the population use the Internet, are an exception, said the report. The report said although SIDS are 25 percentage points below the most connected country groups, they are close to gender parity (0.97). It said in 2019, the share of women using the Internet was higher than that of men (score of 1.02). As for youth Internet use, the report said that worldwide, 79 per cent of people aged between 15 and 24 use the Internet, 14 percentage points more than among the rest of the population (65 per cent), adding that this gap between generations has been stable over the last four years and is observed in every region. Universality, deemed achieved when at least 95 per cent of people use the Internet, has already been reached by this age group in high-income and upper-middle-income economies, it said. In low-income countries, 15- to 24-year-olds are almost twice as likely to use the Internet than other people in those countries, in relative terms. While this is the largest usage gap of any income group, it has shrunk since 2019 when 15- to 24-year-olds were 2.5 times more likely to use the Internet than the rest of the population in low-income countries, the report said. URBAN-RURAL GAP The ITU said worldwide, 81 per cent of urban dwellers use the Internet in 2023, compared with only 50 per cent of the population in rural areas. The urban-rural gap, measured as the ratio of the two percentages, has barely improved in recent years, from 1.7 in 2020 to 1.6 in 2023, it added. Unsurprisingly, the urban-rural gap is the smallest in regions with high penetration: the gap has been almost bridged in Europe, said the report. The ratio stands at 1.2 in both the Americas and the CIS regions, at 1.5 in the Asia-Pacific region and 1.6 in the Arab States region. In all these regions, progress has been modest since the start of the decade. However, the report said in Africa, the gap remains wide: 57 per cent of urban dwellers use the Internet in 2023 compared with just 23 per cent of people in rural areas, reflecting a ratio of 2.5 (2.9 in 2020). The report said that the gap between urban and rural areas varies significantly across income groups, with the gap being almost bridged in high-income countries (ratio of 1.1). In contrast, the divide remains deep in low-income countries: less than one in five people (17 per cent) living in rural areas in these countries use the Internet. People living in urban areas are nearly three times more likely to use the Internet, showing that the digital divide across income groups is magnified in rural areas, said the report. It said the Internet use gap between urban areas of low-income and urban areas of high-income countries is 48 percentage points, while the Internet use gap is 71 percentage points between the rural areas of the two groups. DISPARITIES IN BROADBAND UP-TAKE The report said as of 2023, there are 111 mobile-cellular subscriptions and 87 mobile-broadband subscriptions per 100 inhabitants. In the past five years, mobile-broadband subscriptions grew by 27 per cent, four times the rate for mobile-cellular subscriptions (7 per cent). Fixed-broadband subscriptions have grown steadily, at an average rate of 6.7 per cent per year, while fixed- telephone subscriptions continue their steady decline, it added. Since 2005, fixed-telephone penetration has dropped by half, from 20 subscriptions to 11 subscriptions per 100 inhabitants. The ITU also said at 8.9 billion, the number of mobile-cellular subscriptions now exceeds the world population. “In high-income and upper-middle-income countries, there are about 130 mobile-cellular subscriptions per 100 inhabitants, twice the level observed in low-income countries (65 subscriptions per 100 inhabitants).” Among the regions, CIS boasts the highest penetration, with nearly three subscriptions for every two people (149 per 100 inhabitants), 1.6 times the penetration rate of Africa (92 per 100 inhabitants). It said regional disparities are just as stark for mobile-broadband penetration: the rate of 116 subscriptions per 100 inhabitants in the Americas region is more than twice the rate in Africa (48 per 100 inhabitants). Penetration rates for fixed subscriptions are much lower than for mobile subscriptions, because fixed connections are usually shared by several people in a household, the ITU explained. Nonetheless, it said that the inequalities in access to fixed connections across countries are far higher than for mobile connectivity. “Fixed connections are common in high-income countries (39 subscriptions per 100 inhabitants), but are almost non-existent in low-income countries, due to high prices and a lack of infrastructure.” AFFORDABILITY OF ICT SERVICES The report said the trend of fixed- and mobile-broadband services becoming more affordable continued in 2023. It said the two connectivity benchmarks, namely the data-only mobile-broadband basket and the fixed-broadband basket, have become more affordable in all regions of the world and for all income groups. “The global median price of the mobile-broadband basket dropped from 1.5 to 1.3 per cent of gross national income (GNI) per capita, while that of the fixed-broadband basket dropped from 3.2 to 2.9 per cent of GNI per capita.” Nonetheless, the report said that lack of affordability continues to be a key barrier to Internet access particularly in the low-income economies, adding that a wide gap persists between high-income economies and the rest of the world. It said compared to prices in high-income economies, the mobile-broadband basket is 5.5 times less affordable in lower-middle-income economies and more than 20 times less affordable in low-income economies, where a fixed-broadband subscription, if available at all, costs the equivalent of a third of the average monthly income. MOBILE PHONE OWNERSHIP The report also said data show that, on average, the percentage of individuals owning a mobile phone is higher than the percentage of Internet users, in every region and every income group. Worldwide, 78 per cent of the population aged 10 and over in 2023 own a mobile phone, 11 percentage points higher than the percentage of individuals who use the Internet. “This gap is shrinking in all regions, as growth in Internet use has significantly outpaced the growth of mobile phone ownership over the last three years.” In the Americas, CIS and Europe, where Internet penetration exceeds 80 per cent on average, the rate of mobile phone ownership is less than five percentage points higher than Internet use. The report said the gap is 9 percentage points in the Asia-Pacific and 14 percentage points in the Arab States region. In the Africa region, where 63 per cent of the population own a mobile phone but only 37 per cent use the Internet, the gap is 26 percentage points. It further said that the gender parity gap in mobile phone ownership is comparable with that in Internet use. At the global level, the gender parity score for mobile phone ownership is marginally lower (i.e., skewed against women) than it is for Internet use. The report said as with Internet use, progress has been uneven over the past three years. Women are about 8 per cent less likely to own a mobile phone than men, down from 10 per cent in 2020, while among those not owning a mobile phone, women outnumber men by 35 per cent. As for mobile network coverage, the report said in many countries older-generation mobile networks are being switched-off in favour of new generation networks. 5G enables the development of a digital ecosystem by connecting machines, objects, and devices with ultra-low latency and the potential to improve energy efficiency, it noted. “This is the case for most European operators that plan to switch off 3G networks by December 2025 and for operators in the Asia-Pacific region.” However, the report said in some countries the path is less clear, mainly because 2G and 3G networks retain a significant presence. For instance, this is the case notably in lower-income countries, where both technologies remain an important means of communication. “In these countries, the main obstacles to 5G deployment and adoption include the high infrastructure costs, device affordability, and regulatory barriers.” The report said since commercial deployment began in 2019, 5G coverage has increased to reach 40 per cent of the world population in 2023, but distribution remains very uneven. “While 89 per cent of the population in high-income countries is covered by a 5G network, coverage remains limited in low-income countries.” The report said that Europe boasts the most extensive 5G coverage, with 68 per cent of the population covered, followed by the Americas region (59 per cent) and the Asia-Pacific region (42 per cent). Coverage reaches 12 per cent of the population in the Arab States region and less than 10 per cent in the CIS region (8 per cent) and Africa region (6 per cent). The report said while ninety per cent of the world population is covered by 4G, and where 5G is not available, this remains a very good alternative, 55 per cent of people without access to 4G live in low-income countries. It said whereas 95 per cent of the population in high-income and middle-income countries is covered by 4G or above, the proportion drops to 39 per cent in low-income countries, where 3G remains the dominant technology, and often the only technology available to connect to the Internet. Today, access to a mobile-broadband network is available to 95 per cent of the world population. Bridging the “coverage gap”, that is covering the remaining five per cent still out of reach of a mobile-broadband network, is proving difficult, it added. The ITU said since crossing the 90 per cent threshold in 2018, global 3G coverage has increased by only four percentage points. In the Africa region, the gap is shrinking but remains relatively high at 16 per cent, predominantly affecting the population of central and western Africa. The report pointed out that mobile broadband remains out of reach for 18 per cent of the population in LDCs and LLDCs, which are falling short of target 9.c of UN Sustainable Development Goal 9, namely, to “significantly increase access to information and communications technology and strive to provide universal and affordable access to the Internet in least developed countries by 2020.” Disaggregating the data by location reveals that virtually all urban areas are within range of a mobile-broadband network, the report said, adding that 98 per cent of the population living in rural areas of high-income economies are covered. “This implies that almost every person without access to a mobile broadband network lives in a rural area of a developing country.” INTERNET TRAFFIC The report said that global mobile-broadband traffic rates were estimated to have reached 913 exabytes (EB) in 2022, more than twice the traffic of 2019 (419 EB). Up from just 1,991 EB in 2019, fixed-broadband traffic rates were estimated to have increased to 4,378 EB in 2022 (nearly five times those of mobile-broadband traffic). Between 2019 and 2023, mobile- and fixed-broadband traffic has had an estimated annual average growth of 30 per cent, with a peak rate of growth at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, the report said. Post-pandemic traffic growth slowed between 2021 and 2022: mobile-broadband traffic increased by 22 per cent, and fixed broadband increased by 10 per cent. However, the report said that fixed broadband remains the service of choice for heavy Internet data usage. During the pandemic, a considerable share of mobile traffic was rerouted through fixed networks using home Wi-Fi connections, it added. In 2020, fixed broadband accounted for 96.6 per cent of all Internet traffic. In 2022, the mobile-broadband share of traffic had increased from 3.4 to 4.2 per cent. In 2022, the monthly average fixed-broadband traffic per subscription reached 257 gigabytes (GB) worldwide, compared to the mobile-broadband traffic per subscription average of 11 GB, said the report. While the average annual increase of fixed-broadband traffic per subscription was 21 per cent over the 2019 to 2022 period, that average showed a remarkable slowdown in growth, increasing by just 3 per cent from 2021 to 2022, it added. In contrast, following network infrastructure upgrades, the deployment of 5G networks, and increasing demand, mobile-broadband traffic per subscription increased by 26 per cent every year between 2019 and 2021, and with only a relatively minor slowdown, grew by a further 17 per cent between 2021 and 2022. Highlighting some striking regional differences, the ITU said in the Americas, a fixed-broadband subscription generates 326 GB of traffic per month, compared with 130 GB in Africa, with this gap being even wider for mobile broadband traffic. In Africa, the monthly mobile broadband traffic average per subscription reached 1.9 GB, about six times less than the world average (11.2 GB) and eight times less than the CIS region average (15.1 GB). Monthly Internet traffic averages per fixed-broadband subscription rise dramatically with increases in income levels, from 161 GB per subscription in low-income economies, to as much as 347 GB per subscription in high- income economies, the report noted. For mobile broadband, middle- and high-income economies generate very similar traffic averages, from about 10 to 12 GB per month, which represents almost a ten-fold difference with low-income economies (1.3 GB). The average subscription in LDCs stood at merely 33 and 29 per cent of the global average in terms of fixed- and mobile-broadband traffic, respectively, said the report. +
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