By Prince Osuagwu

DATA released last week by the International Telecommunications Union, ITU, has indicated an increase in the way people engage ICT services. The report however hinted that the development was due to a steady fall in the prices of telephone and broadband Internet services.

The new data, released in ITU’s flagship annual ICT report ‘Measuring the Information Society 2011’, rank the Republic of Korea as the world’s most advanced ICT economy, followed by Sweden, Iceland, Denmark and Finland.

Meanwhile, the mobile operators in developing countries, including Nigeria, according to the report scooped a growth penetration of up to 20 percent.

The report also advised developing economies and emerging markets to target the younger generation by connecting schools and other educational institutions, and improving enrollment rates as a way to effectively increase Internet use in these countries. The reasons were given that about 46 per cent of the population in developing countries is below the age of 25, representing more than 2.5 billion people.

Key features

A key feature of the report is the ICT Development Index IDI, which ranks 152 countries according to their level of ICT access, use and skills, and compares 2008 and 2010 scores. Most countries at the top of the ranking are from Europe and Asia Pacific.

The United Arab Emirates and Russia rank first within their respective regions and Uruguay ranks highest in South America. Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Viet Nam, and Russia were some of the most dynamic countries between 2008 and 2010, with all of them making substantial improvements in their IDI ranks.

All countries included in the IDI improved their scores this year, underlining the increasing pervasiveness of ICTs in today’s global information society. However, Secretary General of the Union, Dr Hamadoun Touré said that while the IDI leaders are all from the developed world, it was also extremely encouraging to see that the most dynamic performers are from developing countries.

According to him, “the mobile miracle is putting ICT services within reach of even the most disadvantaged people and communities. Our challenge now is to replicate that success in broadband.”

This report shows that while ICT and income levels are closely related, getting the right public policy mix can drive faster take-up and a number of countries, including Australia, Japan, New Zealand and the Republic of Korea have higher IDI levels than their income level would predict.

Mobile now ubiquitous

Going by the statistics of the report, the spread of mobile networks in developing countries remains buoyant, with 20 per cent growth in mobile subscriptions over the past year and no signs of a slowdown.

In developed countries, on the other hand, mobile cellular penetration has reached saturation, with average penetration now over 100% at end 2010, compared with 70% in developing countries. With more than five billion subscriptions and global population coverage of over 90%, mobile cellular is now de facto ubiquitous.

Mobile broadband (‘3G’) services are also spreading quickly; by end 2010, 154 economies worldwide had launched 3G networks. Wireless broadband Internet access remains the strongest growth sector in developing countries, with mobile broadband growing by 160% between 2009 and 2010.

Countries registering the highest gains in the IDI ‘ICT use’ sub-index are mostly those which have achieved a sizeable increase in mobile broadband subscriptions. Conversely, the number of dial-up Internet subscriptions has been decreasing rapidly since 2007.

Affordability improves, but developing world still paying too much

Globally, telecommunication and Internet services are becoming more affordable. According to the 2010 ICT Price Basket (IPB), which spans 165 economies and combines the average cost of fixed telephone, mobile cellular and fixed broadband Internet services, the price of ICT services dropped by 18% globally between 2008 and 2010, with the biggest decrease in fixed broadband Internet services, where average prices have come down by 52%.

All economies in the IPB top ten have high GNI per capita, and, with the exception of the United Arab Emirates, all are from Europe and Asia Pacific. In developed countries, average prices for ICT services correspond to no more than 1.5. % of monthly per capita income, compared with 17% in developing countries.

But while broadband prices declined sharply worldwide, a high-speed Internet connection remains unaffordable in many low-income countries. For example, in Africa at end 2010, fixed broadband services cost on average the equivalent of 290% of monthly income, down from 650% in 2008.

Disparities in speed, QoS

Comparing fixed- and mobile broadband technologies and services, the report also finds huge differences in network capacity, speed and quality.

In many developing countries, while the minimum speed for broadband (256 kbit/s) may be sufficient for email and other very basic services, it is inadequate for graphics-rich data-intensive applications and services.