Focus Group Promotion and use of the Internet infrastructure in developing countries Bonn, 15-16 December 1998 Michael Minges Telecommunication Development.

Focus Group Promotion and use of the Internet

infrastructure in developing countriesBonn, 15-16 December 1998

Michael Minges <[email protected]>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

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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

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