Enabling Affordability,
Ensuring Inclusive Development
ITU’s Regional Connectivity Forum for the Caribbean and Central America
Dominican Republic, December 1, 2014 Sonia N. Jorge
Executive Director
Alliance for Affordable Internet
[email protected]
Today’s Agenda
• Who is A4AI and what do we do?
• Affordability: critical for inclusive development
• Affordability: facts and figures
• A4AI in action
• Building bridges for development
WHO IS A4AI AND WHAT DO
WE DO?
A global multi-stakeholder coalition of 70+ members
The World Wide Web Foundation hosts the Secretariat Mission:
Meet UN Broadband Commission Broadband Target of entry- level broadband services priced at less than 5% of average
monthly income.
Thereby:
• Enabling billions of users to come online (with a particular focus on low-income countries)
• Raising Internet penetration rates to least 40% in all
countries
With a clear focus on policy and regulation
• The best technologies can’t drive progress if they are hamstrung by regulation and policy.
• By creating the
conditions for open, competitive and
innovative broadband markets, regulatory and policy reform can
leverage very large
increases in Internet
access.
Supported by members across public, private and civil society sectors
Global sponsors
Private sector
Public Sector / Academia
Strength in diversity…
Civil Society / Foundations
Strength in diversity…
Local partners
All aligned around policy and regulatory best practices
• These diverse organizations have all endorsed nine best practices
• Practices aim to ensure open, competitive
markets, plus policies and regulations in place to lower the cost structure for the industry
• Grounded on principles of Internet freedom and the fundamental rights of expression,
assembly, and association online
How we do it: Policy, Engagement and Information
• Clear focus on Policy and Regulatory Reform
– Underpinned by:
1. Leadership at the national level 2. Coalition building
3. Impartial research & knowledge-sharing
• Engagement with up to 10 countries by end of 2015 across Latin America, Africa and Asia
• On-going research and production of an annual Affordability Report to provide robust evidence for the policy making process
• International advocacy (e.g., UN, ITU, UNCTAD-CSTD, CTO, AU, GSMA-MWC, SIF, and many other regional events)
• Facilitating South-South dialogue
AFFORDABILITY IS CRITICAL
FOR INCLUSIVE DEVELOPMENT
Internet Access = Social and Economic Development
Ø Broadband markets that price Internet access out of reach for the majority of people are neither socially nor
economically efficient.
Ø By restricting access to affluent segments of the population, they hold back progress in areas such as health and
education, and sacrifice tangible GDP growth that would result from higher connectivity levels.
Affordable access also promotes active citizenship: public
participation in democratic processes, increased awareness of
the rights of the citizen, access to government information and
services
How does the Internet enable economic growth?
(Source: Deloitte, “Value of Connectivity: Economic and Social Benefits of Expanding Internet Access”)
(Source: Deloitte, 2013)
Economic impact of internet penetration (75%)
Entrepreneurship & the Web
How can broadband create opportunities and growth in the business sector?
Increase employment and entrepreneurship
• Mobile broadband will open up regional and global markets to local entrepreneurs
• Dominican Republic: A 10% increase in broadband penetration could reduce unemployment by 2.9%
Small and medium enterprise (SME) growth
• Enables SMEs to generate more revenue, lower costs, higher productivity, and jobs
• SMEs that spend more than 30% of their budget on Web
technologies grow their revenue 9x as fast as SMEs that spend less than 10%
(Source: Broadband Commission, 2013)
Kids working together on a
computer in Haiti.
Photo: A4AI member Inveneo
Increased access to educational tools,
information and materials
Photo: A4AI member World Pulse
Gender equality in broadband access:
access to information, public participation
Photos: A4AI member Grameen Foundation
Ready access to agricultural prices and
markets, facilitating better crop management
Photo: A4AI member Intel
Support and opportunities for local
and national ICT entrepreneurship
Pucallpa Village Library, Peru. Photo: A4AI member IREX/Beyond Access
Affordable public access via libraries,
community centers
AFFORDABILITY AROUND
THE WORLD
A bleak picture for developing countries
Broadband Prices as % of GNI per capita
Developed Developing
Fixed Broadband 1.7% 30.1%
Mobile Broadband 1.4% 11 - 25%*
* dependent on plan
Source: ITU Facts and Figures 2013
• In Latin America and the Caribbean, mobile broadband prices still represent 5-11% of GNI per capita.
• Broadband Commission reported that over 90% of people in the
world’s 49 least developed countries are still not connected
Progress made is positive but not enough: at HH level
Source: The World 2014 ICT Facts and Figures
Percentage of Households with internet access, by region, by 2014
Progress made is positive but not enough: … or subs level
Source: The World 2014 ICT Facts and Figures
Active mobile broadband subscriptions, by region, by 2014
In Latin America & Caribbean
public access is key across region
0.0 10.0 20.0 30.0 40.0 50.0 60.0 70.0 80.0
P er ce nt ag e
LAC Countries
Internet Users Compared to Active Mobile and Fixed Line Subscriptions
Mobile Broadband Subscriptions per 100 inhabitants (2013)
Fixed-Broadband Subscriptions per 100 inhabitants (2013)
Percentage Indviduals Using the Internet (2013)
Source: ITU MIS 2014
Averages are misleading… at 5% of incomes, price is not low enough for the majority
0.0 5.0 10.0 15.0 20.0 25.0
P er ce nt ag e o f G NI pc
LAC Countries
Price as % of GNI pc - Mobile and Fixed Broadband
Price of 500MB Prepaid Mobile Broadband as % of GNI pc (2013)
Price of Fixed Broadband as % of GNI pc (2012)
Source: ITU MIS 2014
For a large percentage of the
population, prices are above the 5%
0.0 10.0 20.0 30.0 40.0 50.0 60.0 70.0 80.0 90.0
LAC Countries
Price of Pre-paid Mobile Broadband as % of Disposible Income for the Lowest 20% of HH
and % of the Population for which Price is >5%
Price of 500MB Prepaid Mobile Broadband as % of lowest 20% of HH Disposible Income (2013)
% of Population for which pre-paid handset based mob BB >5% (2013)
Source: ITU MIS 2014
And 3G subs are a small fraction of total mobile subs
0.0 20.0 40.0 60.0 80.0 100.0 120.0 140.0 160.0 180.0
P er ce nt ag e
LAC Countries
3G Subscriptions as % of Total Mobile Subscriptions (GSMA Q4 2013)
3G subscriptions per 100 inhabitants (GSMA Q4 2013)
Mobile subscriptions per 100 inhabitants
(2013)
The A4AI Affordability Report
provides a closer look at the true picture
For the approximately two billion people living on less than $2/day in the 46
countries studied, the UN Broadband Commission target of entry-level
broadband services priced at less than 5% of average monthly income remains
far from attainable.
(A4AI Affordability Report 2013)
The Affordability Report: An innovative index
16 17
3 5
9
11
15
14 13 34
12 16 38 18
44 45
40 43
46 19
20 25
22 24
26
31 27
33
28
29 35
36 32
23
21
17 8
7
4
3 41 6 1
2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20
31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40
41 42 43 44 45 46 21
22
24 25 26 27 28 29 30 23
2
37 39
42
30 Affordability Around the World
