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Household Internet access in rural areas half that of urban zones: ITU
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SME Times News Bureau | 01 Dec, 2020
Revealing worrying gaps in connectivity and Internet access amid the
pandemic, a new report from the United Nation's International
Telecommunication Union (ITU) has shown that household Internet access
in urban areas is twice as high as in rural areas.
Globally about
72 per cent of households in urban areas had access to the Internet at
home in 2019, almost twice as much as in rural areas, nearly 38 per
cent, said the report titled "Measuring Digital Development: Facts and
figures 2020" on Monday.
Connectivity gaps in rural areas are
particularly pronounced in least developed countries, where 17 per cent
of the rural population live in areas with no mobile coverage at all,
and 19 per cent of the rural population is covered by only a 2G network.
"How much longer can we tolerate the significant gap in
household connectivity between urban and rural areas," ITU
Secretary-General Houlin Zhao, said in a statement.
"In the age
of COVID-19, where so many are working and studying from home, this
edition of Measuring Digital Development: Facts and Figures sends the
clear message that accelerating infrastructure roll-out is one of the
most urgent and defining issues of our time." The research
reveals that about a quarter of the population in least developed
countries and landlocked developing countries, and about 15 per cent of
the population in small island developing states do not have access to a
mobile-broadband network.
Not surprisingly, Internet use is
consistently more widespread among young people, irrespective of region
or level of development, said the report.
Whereas just over half
of the total global population is using the Internet, the proportion of
Internet use increases to almost 70 per cent among young people aged
15-24 years.
In least developed countries, 38 per cent of youth
are using the Internet, whereas the overall share of people using it,
including youth, stands at 19 per cent.
In developed countries,
virtually all young persons are using the Internet, while the highest
youth/overall ratio is present in Asia and the Pacific.
The latest ITU data demonstrate that the roll-out of mobile-broadband networks has been slowing in 2020.
Between
2015 and 2020, 4G network coverage doubled globally and almost 85 per
cent of the global population will be covered by a 4G network at the end
of 2020.
Yet, annual growth has been slowing down gradually since 2017, and 2020 coverage is only 1.3 percentage points higher than 2019.
In
addition to infrastructure roll-out, the digital gender divide, lack of
digital skills and affordability continue to be major barriers to
meaningful participation in a digital society, especially in the
developing world where mobile telephony and Internet access remain too
expensive for many, ITU said.
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