ITU is worried because their inability to connect remains profoundly unequal.
This is even in spite of the fact that the striking coronavirus is boosting internet connectivity around the world, yet a worrisome United Nations report says 96 per cent of 2.9 billion people who have never used the internet live in developing countries.
According to ITU, the estimated number of people who have gone online this year actually went up, to 4.9 billion, partially because of a “COVID connectivity boost”.
ITU is the UN specialised agency for information and communication technologies – ICTs. It was founded in 1865 to facilitate international connectivity in communications networks.
‘’We allocate global radio spectrum and satellite orbits, develop the technical standards that ensure networks and technologies seamlessly interconnect, and strive to improve access to ICTs to underserved communities worldwide. Every time you make a phone call via the mobile, access the Internet or send an email, you are benefitting from the work of ITU’’, the UN agency says.
Adding, it said, ‘’ITU is committed to connecting all the world’s people – wherever they live and whatever their means. Through our work, we protect and support everyone’s right to communicate.’’
In line with its mandate and the WSIS outcome documents, ITU continues playing a key role in WSIS implementation and follow-up.
While the record of people who have gone online is good news for global development, ITU is saying that people’s ability to connect remains profoundly unequal – as many hundreds of millions might only go online infrequently, using shared devices or facing connection speeds that hamper their internet use.
ITU Secretary-General, Houlin Zhao, says “while almost two-thirds of the world’s population is now online, there is a lot more to do to get everyone connected to the Internet. ITU will work with all parties to make sure that the building blocks are in place to connect the remaining 2.9 billion. We are determined to ensure no one will be left behind.”
The UN agency’s report found that the unusually sharp rise in the number of people online suggests that measures taken during the pandemic contributed to the “COVID connectivity boost.”
There were an estimated 782 million additional people who went online since 2019, an increase of 17 per cent due to measures such as lockdowns, school closures and the need to access services like remote banking.
Uneven growth
According to the document, users globally grew by more than 10 per cent in the first year of the COVID crisis, which was the largest annual increase in a decade. But it pointed out that growth has been uneven.
Internet access is often unaffordable in poorer nations and almost three-quarters of people have never been online in the 46 least-developed countries.
Speaking in Geneva, Director of ITU, Doreen Bogdan-Martin, said: “The internet divide runs deep between developed and developing countries. Only a third of the population in Africa is using the internet.
“In Europe, the shares are almost 90 per cent, which is the gap between those two regions of almost 60 percentage points. And there is what the UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, has called in his Common Agenda blueprint for the future, “a connectivity Grand Canyon”.
‘Digitally excluded’
The report found that younger people, men and urban dwellers are more likely to use the Internet than older adults, women and those in rural areas, with the gender gap more pronounced in developing nations.
Poverty, illiteracy, limited electricity access and a lack of digital skills continued to hinder “digitally excluded” communities, ITU noted.
