Focus Group Promotion and use of the Internet infrastructure in developing countries Bonn, 15-16 December 1998 Michael Minges Telecommunication Development.
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Focus Group Promotion and use of the Internet
infrastructure in developing countriesBonn, 15-16 December 1998
Michael Minges <minges@itu.int>Telecommunication Development Bureau (BDT)
International Telecommunication Union (ITU)
The views expressed are those of the author and may not necessarily reflect the opinion
of the ITU or its Members.
Internet & Developing Countries
2
The world gets connected...
• August 1981:213 Internet hostsSeveral thousand users
• July 1998:37 million Internet hosts~150 million users
• Practically every country in the world has some Internet activity
217192
174
129
83
22 3548 60
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
Internet hosts (millions)
Countries connected
Internet hosts worldwide
Source
: ITU
, http
://ww
w.n
w.co
m/zo
ne/h
ost-co
unt-h
istory
3
…but distribution is unequal
• More hosts in Finland (514’000) than all of Latin America (386’000).
• More hosts in Australia, Japan and New Zealand (2’280’000) than all the rest of Asia-Pacific region (538’000).
• Over sixteen times as many hosts in New York City (132’000) than all of Africa (excluding South Africa (7’850)).
6%
LAC1%
Europe 18%Canada
&US
73%
Australia,J apan &
N. Zealand6%
OtherAsia / Pacific
2%
Distribution of Internet hosts, J uly 1998
Africa 0.4% So
urce
: ITU
.
4
Levels of Internet development
• Internet penetration related to level of socio-economic development.
• Four stages of Internet development; see The Mosaic Group for more www.agsd.com/gdi97/gdi97-2.html
• Relevant analysis is why countries have different Internet penetration than expected. 0 0.5 1
Human Development Index
Inte
rnet
use
rs p
er 1
'000
inha
bita
nts
100
10
1
0.1
Pervasive
Common
Established
Experi-mental
Degree of Internet diffusion
Source
: ITU
.
See http://www.undp.org/hdro/ for info about Human Development Index.
5
The Internet user profile
Male Urban Young
Wealthy Educated
Which are barriers
and which are prerequisites?
6
Academic users
• Emerging countries that were early to come online did so through academic initiatives and have large educational user bases (e.g., Central and Eastern Europe & parts of Latin America).
• This is not the case for countries that have come online more recently and academic connectivity is poor (e.g., Africa and Asia).
Gov't 3%
Mexico Internet Users
Residential17%
Academic29%
Business51%
J uly 1997 403'000
http
://ww
w.cft.g
ob.m
x/h
tml/5
_est/g
rafica
s/Tbl7
_pag3
7.h
tml
Source
: Com
isión Fe
dera
l de T
ele
com
unica
ciones
7
Internet diffusion barriers
• Price– Personal computer– ISP– Telephone call charge
• Infrastructure– Telecom network– Internet gateways
• Content– Language– National sites
• Awareness
8
Price
• Many users do not pay for Internet access (schools & business).
• Telephone call charges affect overall price of Internet access.
• Some countries have adopted policies reducing call charges for Internet access.
• User rebellion growing over high telephone charges; see Campaign for Unmetered Communications: www.unmetered.org.uk
$0 $20 $40 $60
Malaysia
Hongkong
Mexico
Philippines
AVERAGE
Hungary
UK
Japan
Venezuela
ISP charge Call charge
Note: 20 hours of off-peak use. US$. November 1998. Not including connection or monthly line rental.
Source
: ITU
.
Internet monthly charges
10
Infrastructure
• Telecom infrastructure limitations holding back Internet diffusion in developing countries.
• Internet demand is influencing telecom development
• Voice+: Bundling Internet service with telephone service
Voice+ I n Asia
Country Telecom InternetBangladesh Rural
operatorGrammeenTelecomlicensed
Plans toprovideInternetfromvillagekiosks
Malaysia Newoperatorslicensed
Newoperatorsgiven ISPlicenses
Sri Lanka 2 new WLLoperatorslicensed
ISPsbundlingservicewith newPTOs
11
2'000
2'900
4'300
6'300
1'1754001606014
9'400China Internetusers 000s
Content
• Growing national content is driving Chinese Internet usage.
• China only came online in May 1994 but is already forecast to be 2nd largest Internet market in Asia by 2001.
• Chinese web pages have grown from less than 100 in 1994 to over 250’000 by 1997.
• Number of Chinese web sites around 10’000.
China Internet users 000s
So
urce
: ITU
, http
://ww
w.virtu
alch
ina
.com
/ma
trix/#sta
ts
Forecast
12
Awareness
• Singapore is typical of developed countries where there is a high level of awareness of the Internet
• In developing countries, which tend to have lower levels of literacy and media exposure, many citizens are unaware of the Internet and its benefits
Source
: Natio
nal C
om
pute
r Board
.
http
://ww
w.e
c.gov.sg
/EC
Surv
ey.h
tml
92% 32%2%
All adults aged 18-552.09m
All who are awareof Internet
1.93m
All who ever boughtvia Internet
40,000
All who everused Internet
677,000
Singapore: Level of Internet Awareness
13
The Geography of Cyberspace
• Countries with high Internet penetration tend to be geographic or psychological islands leading to a sense of isolation.
• Developing countrieswhich often feel isolated from the global information economythus possess a significant driver of Internet demand.
0 50 100 150 200
Niue (1)
Finland (2)
Iceland (4)
Anguilla(14)
Singapore(17)
Israel (19)
Tonga (21)Internet domain
names per 1'000 inhabitants,
July 1998(World rank)
So
urce
: ITU
, ad
ap
ted
from
ww
w.n
w.co
m.
14
Ghana gets on the info-highway
• Liberalization of telecom sector has increased availability of communication infrastructure.
• Ghana came online in August 1995, first West African country to do so.
• Project to provide 30’000 e-mail addresses accessible through post offices.
0.0
0.5
1.0
1.5
2.0
2.5
1990
1992
1994
1996
1998
2000
Teledensity (per 100)Internet density (per 1'000)
Ghana: Telecom & Internet penetration
So
urce
: ITU
.
15
Conclusions
• Raise awarenessawareness– Educating citizens about Internet uses and how to use
it
• Enhance accessibilityaccessibility– Spreading availability to those who cannot afford to
use Internet by widespread proliferation of public access points
• Make it relevantrelevant– Make sure Internet has national relevance by
encouraging development of national content
• Understand policypolicy implications– Complex regulatory issues that involve trade-offs
between costs, prices, technological innovation and universal access
16
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