As the ambition for universal connectivity becomes a norm, national states and multilateral organizations turn their minds to the protection and participation of children. After
Smart Africa is a Pan-African organization entrusted with the Digital Transformation Agenda of Africa with the vision to transform Africa into a single digital market
As stated in the State of Broadband report 2022, there are two key requirements to accelerate the transition to a more connected post-pandemic world: A progressive digital sector regulatory environment to incentivise the required infrastructure investments along with globally aligned efforts and harmonized policies to connect the unconnected.
The next era of development will be defined by how efficiently countries can leverage the immense power of digital. These technologies will be central to driving progress across the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) from advancing decisive climate action to spurring new efforts to restore our natural world — creating millions of new opportunities and driving forward human development.
Connectivity is foundational to digitalization, and digitalization has the potential to help fulfill all 17 of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Against that backdrop, industries, governments, civil societies, and institutions need to do everything possible to widen access to the high-performing connectivity upon which exponential technologies like AI, VR and IoT flourish.
Global leadership is at the core of the Broadband Commission’s mission to bridge the long standing digital divide and solve the problem of bringing broadband connectivity to 50% of the world’s population.
If current rates of internet penetration were to continue, it will be decades before the world’s 3.7
billion unconnected are brought online. New ground needs to be broken to bridge this gap at a
much faster pace and catalyze the efforts being made by stakeholders in the digital ecosystem.
What is digitalization? Is it a shadow system that work alongside existing mechanisms for government, business and society? Or is it an entirely new way of doing things?
If we are to unlock digitalization’s full potential, we must choose the latter definition. It has the potential to be a new, better, safer way for society and business to operate – but only if digital decision-making is embedded into public and private services, rather than bolted on.
Mobile internet connectivity provides billions with access to transformational digital services, delivering economic benefits and reducing household poverty. However, an estimated 37 per cent of the world’s population – or 2.9 billion people – have still never used the Internet, despite 95 per cent of people in the world having access to a 3G or 4G mobile broadband network. To redress this inequality and achieve the targets of universal and meaningful connectivity, policymakers must work together to bring everyone online, and address not just the connectivity gap, but also the usage and consumption gap.
According to Statistics Korea, Korea is expected to become a super-aged society by 2025. 20% of the population will be over 65 and 35.1% of the elderlies are predicted to live alone. As the needs for ESG is growing rapidly throughout current society, KT is stepping up to fulfill its social responsibility by launching AI Care service provided through KT’s AI voice recognition technology.
Online and ICT-facilitated violence against women and girls is evolving and expanding, including sexual harassment, stalking, and zoom bombing. Innovations, including virtual reality and the metaverse, are creating new digital spaces for misogyny and sexual violence. Those relying on an online presence for their work, including women journalists, politicians, and activists, are disproportionately affected. And there is growing evidence of the reinforcing connection between online violence and real-life violence against women and girls, acts which often have important consequences for women’s and girls’ professional and personal livesiv. Women and girls must have safe and equal access to information, to become part of the next generation of innovators, tech and software engineers and online content creators.
In 2021, only 96 economies met the target with regard to the data-only mobile broadband basket, and only 64 economies met the target with respect to the fixed broadband basket. Both of these figures have decrease comparing to the previous year. To put it in a more tangible term, 4.9 billion were connected to the internet, with around 2.9 billion people were left completely offline. Within these 2.9 billion people, 96% of them live in developing countries, 390 million of them have no mobile broadband coverage at all.
As a global community, we are facing some of the greatest challenges of our lifetime. In this context we have understood as never before the power that technology has for our future. Still, too many people remain unconnected. Verizon’s corporate purpose to create the networks that move the world forward has never felt so vital.
The future of “going global” is digital. This is especially true for small businesses: the road to overseas markets will run through digital channels and platforms. The firms who can connect, compete and change will thrive.
Ghana considers broadband connectivity a basic necessity of life in the 21st century. With about 30% of Ghana’s population living in unconnected rural areas, the Government of Ghana has complemented the universal access fund with a €155-million facility in the deployment of 2,016 sites offering voice and data roaming services to all subscribers irrespective of their service provider.
Achieving inclusive and broad connectivity is a basic requirement for the economic and social development of our countries. Regardless of starting point of the regions, there are various economic, geographic or demographic factors common to all of them and where the existence of a digital divide between rural and urban areas is evident, especially in regions with complex orography and large areas with very low population density, as is the case of Spain.
In relation to the above, this “box” summarizes the connectivity policies that Spain has developed over the last few years to achieve the goal of 100 % of the population having 100 Mbps coverage by 2025.
To unleash the potential of every person on the planet will require access to connectivity for all. Making broadband affordable is a critical step in achieving that meaningful universal connectivity to drive growth worldwide and is a top priority for the 2025 Broadband Advocacy Targets. We need to work together through innovative partnerships, using a mix of technologies to make broadband affordable. At the same time, we must leverage this connectivity to improve environmental sustainability.
In 2015, the 193 UN member states officially adopted 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) with the aim of balancing the economic, social, and ecological dimensions of sustainable development by 2030. These goals are closely interrelated and provide a clear roadmap for promoting global sustainable development. However, many of the goals are being hindered due to a variety of reasons.
We are at a critical point in time, where immediate action is required to eliminate the most pressing issues with regard to the provision of meaningful universal access to connectivity. In this regard, SAMENA Council is exploring innovative mechanisms and instruments to unlock access to capital to support telecom operators.
With less than three years left to achieve the Commission’s 2025 Advocacy Targets, making our shared ambitions a reality requires us to focus on specific and rapidly evolving elements of the digital economy. We need to capitalize on the lessons learned during the pandemic, understand the implications of the evolving internet value chain and consider the role of the ICT sector in responding to climate change.
The COVID-19 pandemic triggered a massive surge in virtual health and care delivery across the world, with many countries embracing hybrid virtual and in-person services. This year’s report from the Broadband Commission for Sustainable Development Working Group on Virtual Health and Care – co-chaired by the World Health Organization and the Novartis Foundation – analysed these developments in 23 countries, and emerged with a warning that health stakeholders need to act to prevent increase of health inequities due to digital divides.