Countries to spend $428bn to connect 3bn people to internet – ITU

The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) has said about $428billion is required to connect the remaining 3 billion people aged ten years and above to broadband Internet by 2030.

This was stated by the ITU in a publication, Connecting Humanity – Assessing investment needs of connecting humanity to the Internet by 2030, which was made available to Daily Trust via email on Thursday.

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Connecting Humanity is a comprehensive new study that estimates the investment needed to achieve universal, affordable broadband connectivity for all humanity by the end of this decade, Daily Trust reports.

“Meeting the investment necessary to bring every person online by the end of this decade will require an unprecedented and concerted effort from the public and private sectors,” said ITU Secretary-General Houlin Zhao.

“The new Connecting Humanity study led by ITU is the much-needed roadmap that will guide decision-makers on the journey towards accessible, affordable, reliable, and safe digital technologies and services for all’’, he added.

The study examined costs associated with infrastructure needs, enabling policy and regulatory frameworks, and basic digital skills and local content at both the global and regional levels, as well as how to mobilize the unprecedented levels of financing needed to extend networks to unserved communities.

Over the past several months, the COVID-19 pandemic has exposed different types of inequalities within and across countries and regions, including those related to quality of access, affordability and use of the Internet.

Assessing investment requirements to reach affordable universal connectivity is important to any country concerned with their ability to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

According to ITU, over 12% of the global unconnected population live in remote, rural locations where traditional networks are not easily accessible, most of them in Africa and South Asia.

This connectivity gap is exacerbated by the gender digital divide.

Across the globe, more men than women use the Internet: only 48% of women as opposed to 58% of men.

“While this is an ambitious aim, it is in no way an unachievable one,” said Doreen Bogdan-Martin, Director of the ITU Telecommunication Development Bureau.