Global Voice Divide Has Closed, Broadband Divide is Closing, As Well

Without minimizing the issues involved, the concern about availability of advanced communication services in undeveloped regions is an “issue,” but not a “crisis.” 

In other words, mobile broadband, fixed broadband and advanced voice and messaging services are not as prevalent in “developing” countries as in “developed” nations. 

But the gaps rapidly are being addressed by mobile service providers, device manufacturers and application providers. 

It wasn’t so long ago (three decades ago, for example) that policy makers seriously were perplexed about how to provide basic phone service to billions of humans who “had never made a phone call.” 

These days, we have an answer. Mobile networks and services have largely erased that “voice access” problem, and the answer to broadband access will be “mobile networks” as well. 

In fact, the global mobile access and mobile broadband “divide” is closing rapidly, one might conclude from the latest data from the International Telecommunications Union. The Measuring the Information Society 2012” report also shows that developing countries now account for lion’s share of mobile growth,

Indeed, in the mobile sector, developing countries now account for the lion’s share of market growth. Mobile subscriptions registered continuous double-digit growth in developing country markets, for a global total of six billion mobile subscriptions by end 2011. Both China and India each account for around one billion subscriptions.

Mobile broadband continues to be the service with the sharpest growth rates. Over the past year, growth in mobile-broadband services continued at 40 percent globally and 78 percent in developing countries.

In fact, there are now twice as many mobile broadband subscriptions as fixed broadband subscriptions worldwide. The price of ICT services also dropped by 30 percent between 2008 and 2011, the report finds. The biggest decrease in fixed- broadband Internet services, where average prices have come down by 75 percent. And the bulk of those changes have come in the “developing” regions and countries. That isn’t to say broadband is “affordable” in most developing areas.  At the end of 2011, the price of a monthly fixed-broadband package represented over 40 percent of monthly gross national income per capita, the report indicates.

In developed nations, the retail price of broadband access amounted to about 1.7 percent of monthly gross national income per capita, in developed economies.

The ITU has set the targeted cost of an entry-level broadband subscription at less than five percent of GNI. And as has been the case for voice services, mobile services will provide the answer, for the most part.

By 2011, nine of the top 20 telecom markets globally in terms of revenues were developing country markets, including Brazil, China, India and Mexico, while developing countries collectively accounted for 35 percent of world telecommunication revenue.

Top 20 telecommunication markets, by revenue, 2010

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