ICT Diffusion Data

The ‘digital divide’ has become a primary indicator of unequal opportunity, measured in terms like number of telephones, Internet hosts or personal computers (PCs) per thousand inhabitants. The ‘digital divide’ advocates argue that access to the new ICTs remains (extremely) unequally distributed across and within societies (Quibria et al., 2003:811).⁴³ An overview of the regional digital divide, including not only essential products but also essential inputs into the generation and maintenance of digital services, is provided in Tables 4.1 and 4.2 below.

The picture sketched in Tables 4.1 and 4.2 is, of course, changing rapidly. The evolution of Internet access has been remarkable. In Africa the number of Internet subscribers grew from under 15,000 to over 400,000 between 1996 and 1999 (Rodriguez & Wilson, 2000). In Latin America the figure increased from 5.8 to 13.3 million between 1998 and 2000 (US Internet Council and ITTA Inc., 2000). For a number of reasons, however, it is hard to know whether a rapid rate of growth in access to certain products or services indicates significant progress toward narrowing digital divides, among countries or within them. The figures cited in Tables 4.1 and 4.2 do not imply a reduction in the North-South divide, since progress remains faster in advanced industrial countries than in the rest of the world. Moreover, until research is carried out in specific local settings, there is a paucity of information on the kinds of sectors, groups and individuals that are actually gaining access to new ICTs in developing countries. Furthermore, figures such as those in Table 4.1 measure consumer access, not the effect that increasing use of ICTs may have on the economy or on people’s livelihood. When mobile phones, fax machines, computers

43 ICTs can be defined as “electronic means of capturing, processing, storing and communicating information” (Heeks, 1998:3). ICTs are based on digital information held as binary digits, i.e. 1s and 0s, and are comprised of computer hardware, software and networks. The term ICTs is used, rather than information technology (IT), because it reflects the convergence of digital computing, broadcasting and telecommunications. Whereas IT like computers largely focus on the processing of information, ICTs undertake both processing and communication of information. The new ICTs refer primarily to Internet-based technologies and mobile phones.

and software are imported (as they are in most African, Latin American and Middle Eastern countries) there is nothing inevitably ‘developmental’ about their availability.

And since it is usually costly to use the Internet in developing countries, the figures also say little about how frequently the new Internet-based tools are being used.

Table 4.1: Selected technological outputs by region (1992-1997)⁴⁴

Region Television sets Mobile

phones Personal

computers Internet

hosts Fax

machines GDP per capita (US$)

OECD 522.57 102.21 195.37 138.25 31.43 20,114

Middle East 254.87 24.58 32.16 5.31 7.06 8,941

East Asia 164.08 24.36 46.10 6.26 6.34 6,271

Latin America &

Caribbean

242.03 14.43 20.33 5.69 9.05 5,636

Eastern Europe &

Transition Economies

288.47 6.34 28.21 6.99 2.27 4,027

Sub-Saharan

Africa 47.76 1.61 5.05 0.50 1.66 1,972

South Asia 32.70 0.69 4.72 0.13 1.60 1,764

Note: Figures for Internet hosts are per 10,000 people; all others are per 1,000 people. GDP figures are calculated at purchasing power parity.

Source: Calculations based on UNDP (1999) and World Bank (2001) Development Indicators Database

44 More recent figures are available for certain variables; however, their accuracy is questionable.

Therefore, they have not been included in this table.

Table 4.2: Selected technological inputs by region (1992-1997)

Region R&D as % of

GDP Technicians Scientists Telephone

mainlines GDP per

Note: Technicians and scientists are per 1 million persons; telephone mainlines are per 10,000 persons.

GDP figures are calculated at purchasing power parity.

Source: Calculations based on UNDP (1999) and World Bank (2001) Development Indicators Database

Table 4.3: Information and communication infrastructure (1995-2001) (per 1,000 people)

Note: n.a.=data not available; 0=less than half the unit shown

* The classifications are based on the definitions in the World Bank’s (2001) Development Indicators database, but all countries with population below one million are excluded. The group average has been calculated when data for at least half of the countries are available.

Source: Calculations based on ITU (2002).

Table 4.4: World Internet users by region (September 2002) Region No. of Internet users % of total

Europe 190.91 million 31.5

Asia/Pacific 187.24 million 30.9 Canada & USA 182.67 million 30.2 Latin America 33.35 million 5.5

Africa 6.31 million 1.0

Middle East 5.12 million 0.8

World 605.60 million 100

Source: Nua.com (2003:n.p.)

Table 4.3 displays data about ICT equipment and its use. It is apparent that, at present, the average developing country does not have large-scale access to ICT technology. The number of PCs and Internet users per 1,000 people is ten times higher in the rich countries than in the developing countries. The number of telephones is six times higher, and the number of mobile phones seven times higher.

But the contrast is even more stark when the rich countries are compared with the least developed ones. The fact is that there are as many Internet users in Finland, with a population of 5 million, as there are in Sub-Saharan Africa, with a population of 643 million. Table 4.4 shows that Africa accounts for only 1% of the world’s Internet users.

The world can be divided into three broad blocks in terms of access to the information and communication infrastructure. The two extreme blocks in terms of ICT density are North America and Western Europe, on the one hand, and South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa, on the other. The rest of the world falls in between, East Asia and the Pacific being the leading region within this block. Table 4.3 also highlights the rapid growth in the use of PCs, the Internet and mobile phones in the 1990s. In developing countries the number of PCs increased twofold, whereas the Internet and mobile phone densities rose twenty-fold in the second half of the 1990s.

Not much is known about the patterns of ICT diffusion across countries and about the determinants of its adoption. The importance of human capital, openness to trade and direct investment, telecommunication infrastructure and Internet access costs are emphasised in existing studies (Caselli & Coleman, 2001; Lee, 2001; Shih, Kraemer

& Dedrick, 2001; Kiiski & Pohjola, 2002). But even their impacts seem to be

different between the developed and developing countries. It is evident that given the dissimilarities in the production and consumption profiles between these two groups of countries, the optimal ways to benefit from ICTs are likely to be different as well.

More research is needed on the factors affecting the adoption of ICTs.

The enormous gap in the accessibility of basic telephone infrastructure has been recognised for many years. In 1984 the ‘Maitland Report’ set a target for the beginning of the 21^st century for all the world’s people to be brought within easy reach of a telephone, observing that:

“in the industrialised world telecommunication is taken for granted as a key factor in economic, commercial and social activity and as a prime source of cultural enrichment…The situation in the developing world is in stark contrast…Neither in the name of common humanity nor on grounds of common interest is such a disparity acceptable” (Independent Commission for Worldwide Telecommunication Development, 1984, Executive Summary).

In 2003, despite the advent of new mobile satellite services and considerable investment in some countries, little has changed.

There has been a recent surge of literature on the so-called ‘digital divide’ between developed and developing countries (UNDP, 2001; World Bank, 1999; TeleCommons Development Group, 2000; UN, 2000). It is argued that the failure of the South to harness the benefits of the ongoing technological revolution in the North places developing country populations at an ever increasing disadvantage in a globalising world. The concern for ‘bridging the digital divide’ is often validated by emphasising the potential to ‘unleash the power of the Internet’ or indeed the information superhighway. In the words of Bellamy and Taylor (1998:63), “the power of ICTs lies in their proleptical vision: one that promises new opportunities”. The development challenges that such generalised debate presents can appear overwhelming. Moreover, rather than highlighting priority areas for intervention,

‘facts and figures’ about the digital divide tend to obscure and oversimplify complex and long-standing development concerns.