According to the UN, in 2022, three quarters of people over the age of 10 will have a mobile phone.

By 2022, nearly three-quarters of people over the age of 10 will have a mobile phone, making it easier to access the Internet, and nearly a third of the world’s population is still without this international network, the United Nations said on Wednesday. “Mobile phones are the most common gateway to the Internet, and ownership rates serve as an indicator of Internet availability and accessibility.writes the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in its annual report on global connectivity.

However, not all laptop owners have Internet access, especially in low-income countries where broadband is often prohibitively expensive. According to data collected by the ITU, 95% of people in rich countries have a mobile phone, while in poor countries the penetration rate drops to 49%.

“Digital Darkness”

Internet access is growing, but less rapidly, after a jump during the Covid pandemic and its restrictions, which forced hundreds of millions of people to work or study online. Today, about 5.3 billion people, or 66% of the world’s population, use the Internet. Almost all those who are not connected are in the poorest countries.

This percentage has grown steadily in recent years and is going strongbeatIn 2020, ITU Chief Economist Thierry Geiger told AFP: But there is still a long way to go becausetoo many people still live in digital darkness– announced Doreen Bogdan-Martin, who will become the first woman to head this agency in early 2023. “Internet access is growing, but not as fast and as evenly across the world as it should be“, he added in a press release regarding the report.

A measure of Internet access is the average price of mobile broadband services, which are often less expensive than fixed access. These average prices have fallen from 1.9% of gross national income per capita to 1.5% in 2022. But costs are still too high for many consumers in low-income countries, where a mobile phone data plan costs 9% of average income.

fractures

That’s far more than the percentage paid for similar services in rich countries, according to the ITU, which called on all countries to provide affordable broadband access, which it defines as spending less than 2% of national income per capita per month. per gross. “We must preserve Internet access even as the global recession hits the economic prospects of many countriesOutgoing ITU chief Hulin Zhao said in a statement.

Thierry Geiger notes that even if the cost of connectivity appears to be continuing to fall, rising prices for essentials could force many people off the grid. Although Internet access is increasingly considered an essential service,food always prevails“, he announced. We will have to wait until next year to see the possible consequences of the current crisis.

The persistent numerical divide between the rich and the poor, as well as the gender divide. Although women make up about half of the world’s population, there are about 259 million fewer people with internet access than men, and only 63% of women shop online compared to 69% of men.