Half of the world’s population still cannot access the Internet and efforts at driving Internet network roll-out has not yielded the desired results, a report by Broadband Commission for Sustainable Development has revealed.
The report called for new strategies to reach half of the global population still unconnected, noting that collaboration, collective approaches and partnerships would help immensely in achieving this.
It stated that global growth in the percentage of households connected to the internet was tardy, experiencing only an insignificant rise to 54.8 per cent from 53.1 per cent, while household internet adoption rose by just 0.8 per cent on average in low-income countries.
On individuals using the internet, data showed slowed global growth in 2018 and unimpressive growth in developing countries that are home to the majority of the estimated 3.7 billion that are not connected.
The Secretary-General of International Telecommunications Union, Houlin Zhao, said, “This year’s State of Broadband report encourages us to think in terms of ‘meaningful universal connectivity’ because digital inclusion can only be meaningful and effective if and when internet-users feel empowered to use the technology and when the technology is affordable, attractive and safe.”
