and access remains prohibitive for billions people in the developing and emerging countries, with women and rural dwellers affected most.
A4AI is the world’s broadest technology sector coalition, with Google, US AID, the UK Department for International Development and the World Wide Web Foundation amongst its 70+ members.
The report also featured an “Affordability Index”, which combines primary and secondary data to score countries on the current and future affordability environment. High scores on the Affordability Index are strongly related to affordable Internet access.
According to the new report, more than half the countries surveyed do not meet UN Internet affordability benchmark of entry level broadband priced at 5% or less of monthly.
Across the countries surveyed by A4AI, the report indicated that a fixed broadband connection costs the average citizen approximately 40% of their monthly income, eight times more than the affordability target set by the UN Broadband Commission in 2011.
Mobile broadband, the report added is cheaper but still double the UN threshold, averaging 10% of monthly income about as much as developing country households spend on housing.
The Report further revealed that bringing affordable broadband to all must be a priority in the post 2015 Sustainable Development Goals currently under negotiation at the UN.
Key themes emerging this year include: Women and rural populations face the highest barriers to get online Social norms, income disparities, and infrastructure challenges all increase the real cost for these populations to get online, leading to their further marginalization and exclusion from the benefits associated with Internet access.
Although Nigerian tops number two position out of five countries in the overall Index Rankings by the A4A1 UN Internet affordability benchmark, the Minister of Communications Technology, Dr. Omobola Johnson told panel discussion international audience at the launch of the Alliance for Affordable Internet’s Affordability Report at the Ericsson stand on Wednesday at the 2015 MWC that about $3.7 billion dollars subsidy fund was needed to connect the next forty million Nigerians who do not have internet access as a result of affordability.
The biggest challenges in building infrastructure in Nigeria, according to her will include double taxation by the state government, right of way approval, and cost of access, among others.
Although a number of state governments are partnering with the Federal government on reducing the cost of right of way down, she assured that the Ministry of Communication Technology was working with other state governments in the country that are yet to key in.
“The Federal Government welcomes the revised methodology applied in deriving the Affordability Index believing that it is aligned with the work we are doing to make the internet affordable and accessible to the citizenry.
“Whilst acknowledging our rise in the ranking, we continue in our unrelenting pursuit in removing impediments to infrastructure development and internet adoption in our country.
“We still have some way to go in meeting our national targets an d international benchmarks but Nigeria’s improved ranking on the Affordability Index validates our actions to date and shows that we are very much on the right track.”, Johnson said.
“In the 21st century, inability to pay should not deny anyone access to the Internet. Universal broadband can easily become a reality if leaders commit to ending anti competitive policies that keep Prices artificially high, prioritizing more well planned infrastructure investment, and expanding public access programmes to ensure the poorest are not left behind ,” A4AI Executive Director Sonia Jorge, said.
Strong political leadership critical
While clear paths to progress do exist, strong leadership and commitment from the very top, according to the report is required for meaningful change.
Commenting, Sonia Jorge, Executive Director of A4AI said: “Unnecessarily high prices, in tandem with a failure to expand public access, are still conspiring to bar billions from accessing the life changing potential of the Web.
Those most in need of upliftment are women, rural populations and those living in poverty are hit the hardest. The good news is that a clear roadmap to progress has emerged. Global experience has delivered a set of policies and principles which when implemented in an integrated fashion and combined with strong leadership can deliver real change, fast. We urge policy makers in all countries to follow these recommendations. ”
Also speaking at the panel, Allan Ruiz Madrigal, Deputy Minister of Telecommunications, Ministry of Science, Technology and Telecommunications, Republic of Costa Rica, while commenting on his country’s top ranking said that, “Achieving universal broadband access has been a main focus of telecommunications sector reform in Costa Rica over the past seven years and continues to be a top priority.
Our first National Telecommunications Development Plan, created in 2009, aimed to make broadband available to all users, develop access centres for vulnerable communities, and connect schools and government institutions.
These objectives were central to our first National Broadband Strategy, which was formalised in 2012 and is now being revised to address barriers to affordable access and further these important aims.”
For Patrick Ryan, Access Principal at Google, “More than four billion people are still offline, and the cost of Internet access is one of the biggest barriers to connecting more of the world.
There’s a huge need to understand what’s working to make access affordable the Alliance for Affordable Internet and its annual Affordability Report are helping us do this so that we can all work together to put the Internet within reach of more people.”
Ann Mei Chang, Executive Director, USAID Global Development Lab, added that, “The Affordability Report is a valuable resource for understanding the global Internet landscape, and its release today is so imperative because it pairs with the powerful consensus voice that A4AI has created among its diverse membership. Together, they offer us a clear pathway towards advancing a more inclusive digital economy.”
Latin American countries, according to the report are leading the way in policy reforms to expand affordable access.
Latin American states nabbed six out of the top 10 spot s in this year’s Affordability Index rankings. Costa Rica’s innovative actions to expand broadband access to rural and poor populations and strong push to develop infrastructure all guided by a well formed broadband plan and supported by government earned the country the number one spot.
Robust broadband plans and similar integrated pushes to expand infrastructure found in Colombia, Peru and other Latin American countries resulted in the region’s high rankings.
Meanwhile, there is a roadmap to progress as researcher s identified five key policy areas which drive high Index scores. When developed and implemented in harmony, these measures will drive access prices down.
They are: (i) the existence of an effective National Broadband Plan; (ii) an environment which promotes enhanced competition; (iii) strategies which permit efficient spectrum allocation; (iv) models designed to encourage or mandate infrastructure sharing; and (v) widespread public access through libraries, schools, and other community venues.
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