By Gom Mirian
A new report by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) Facts and Figures shows that only 36 per cent of the population in the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) used the Internet in the last three months.
The report also revealed that about two-thirds of the LDCs’ population remains offline.
Speaking at the Fifth ongoing United Nations (UN) Conference on the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) in Doha, the Secretary-General of ITU, Doreen Bogdan-Martin said the path to prosperity for the world’s least developed countries runs through digital development.
According to him, a special edition of ITU’s Facts and Figures highlights the challenges confronting LDCs and should help strengthen commitments between the least developed countries and their development partners.
The ITU study, prepared ahead of the Fifth United Nations Conference on the Least Developed Countries (LDC5), focuses on trends in digital connectivity in LDCs since 2011 when the UN last held its global conference on least developed countries.
According to the research, which uses data from ITU’s Facts and Figures 2022, an estimated 407 million people in LDCs were using the Internet in 2022.
The research further shows that 720 million people are still offline in LDCs, representing 27 per cent of the global offline population, even though the LDCs population accounts for only 14 per cent of the world population.
The study highlights that only 83 per cent of the combined LDC population is covered by a mobile broadband signal 3G or above, the main way to connect to the Internet in most developing countries as compared with 95 per cent coverage for the overall world population.
The latest edition of Facts and Figures, ITU’s annual overview on the state of digital connectivity, found that the cost of using Internet services inched downward across the globe in 2022.
The special ITU analysis produced for LDC5 highlights that accessing the Internet is more costly in LDCs than anywhere else in the world.
According to ITU, the challenge of getting communities online has also become more complex over the last decade than just constructing physical connections.
For LDCs, the goal of universal and meaningful connectivity when a safe, satisfying, enriching, productive, and affordable online experience is available to all remains a distant prospect.
Added that even many of those who can access the Internet do not, because of the barriers ranging from awareness to skills to costs.
On his part, the Director of ITU’S Telecommunication Development Bureau, Cosmas Zavazava, said “The ITU special report reveals the tremendous digital diversity of LDCs, which implies different priorities and calls for different solutions.
“The world’s least developed countries are the planet’s greatest untapped resource.
“Connectivity in particular, meaningful connectivity can contribute to addressing the challenges faced by LDCs and help them achieve sustainable digital transformation,” Zavazava said.
