Internet Access: Half the World Is Muted

Eliana Fram is a MA in International Development and Policy Candidate at Harris School of Public Policy.

The teacher points to the blackboard and asks emphatically, “What is an email?” She is asking not because her students do not know the answer, but because she wants them to answer using Jakobson’s communication model: outlining an email as a message transmitted from the sender to the receiver, serving an individual’s intention to express and communicate. “I hope it would be easier for them if I put it in terms they already know,” she told me. On the other side of the classroom, four of the eight students who attend La Ciénaga, a rural school on the border between Argentina and Bolivia, were trying to draw the “@” symbol on their notebooks.

In light of the coronavirus pandemic, it’s not novel to acknowledge that communities have largely moved online. Despite this, by the end of 2019, just over half of the world population used the internet (51.4%) and only 57% of households had a broadband connection. Billions of people still are not fortunate enough to access internet benefits, such as online medicine, online government services or educational materials, and more.

Even though this seems discouraging, we have come a long way. The global internet usage rate increased from nearly 17% of individuals in 2005, per the International Telecommunications Union (ITU). This means that over the past 15 years, the number of internet users grew on average by 10% every year. This is the most rapid adoption rate the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) industry has experienced, surpassing technologies like the telegraph, telephone, radio, television, and personal computers.

Internet connectivity encourages the sustainability of a new economy that relies on a wide range of activities related to the use of information and knowledge as drivers of productivity. For this, internet access serves as a tool to obtain the knowledge and skills related to new ways of creating, managing, transmitting, understanding, and using information. It has also been fairly debated that providing citizens with this tool will give rise to and boost an inclusive digital economy. For example, assuming an increase of 10% in fixed broadband penetration, North America, Latin America, and the Caribbean would enjoy an increase of 1.88% in GDP per capita, according to novel data from the ITU.

While internet access is considered a great driver of progress, development, and well-being, accessibility is not universal, and the benefits of connectivity are not distributed evenly across populations. So, what prevents countries from bringing everyone online? What may be hindering universal access?

Governmental interventions can serve as crucial tools in fostering affordable access across populations. As a part of the 2020 Affordability Report, the Alliance for Affordable Internet (A4AI) highlights how different countries address internet regulations. Among other findings, it is evident that countries that promoted competition, such as through adopting flexible licensing frameworks and requiring transparency from regulators, were also more likely to promote universal internet access. Policies that foster universal access include infrastructure investments that reduce costs and increase access for the under-served, subsidies for broadband access for end users, and free or low-cost public internet access, such as budget allocations for internet access in public libraries, schools, and community centers, or provisions for spectrum use by community Wi-Fi options.

The tight relationship between promoting competition and promoting universal access is accentuated in low-income and lower middle-income countries. Moreover, countries that facilitate resource sharing across telecommunications operators and define specific, limited, and well-justified guidelines for these practices are also more likely to have universal access policies in place.

Why is universal access important? Though there may be several benefits, the most important, arguably, is that it fosters inclusion. Internet is considered essential, not only because of the services it offers but because it does not know distinctions of any kind: it is a place where citizens from all over the world can exercise their right to freedom of expression and opinion. From this perspective, internet access can generate, from an authentic social and educational inclusion, the basis for sustainable development and, as stated, promote economic growth.

If students can access teaching materials through the internet, that means improving education. If workers can continue training or complete their distance education remotely, it means better job opportunities. If nurses and doctors can do telemedicine thanks to internet connectivity, it means improving the quality and reach of healthcare.

Knowing how to read and write is no longer enough to meet the expectations of today’s information-filled society: we also must generate the skills that allow us to take advantage of the full potential of Information and Communication Technologies. It is a new language that enables the possibilities of the 21st century, but there is still a long way to go. We must continue working to ensure that everyone, including the kids at La Ciénaga, has such an empowering tool at hand.