The State of Broadband 2015

Since its establishment in 2010 by ITU and UNESCO, the Broadband Commission for Digital Development has sought to promote the adoption of effective and inclusive broadband policies and practices in countries around the world, with a view to achieving development goals and empowering every woman and man, and every society, through the benefits of broadband.

In late 2015, UN Member States will formally renew their commitment to promoting sustainable development and eradicating poverty with a New Agenda for Global Action.

The UN Summit from 25-27 September 2015 in New York is being convened as a high-level Plenary Meeting of the UN General Assembly for the adoption of the agreed Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The outcome document, ‘Transforming our world: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development’, acknowledges that ‘the spread of information and communication technology and global interconnectedness has great potential to accelerate human progress’ and to develop knowledge societies. It sets out ambitious ICT development targets in the goals agreed for education, gender and infrastructure,  with ICTs recognized as a ‘means of implementation’ for all SDGs.

A large body of evidence has now been amassed that affordable and effective broadband connectivity is a vital enabler of economic growth, social inclusion and environmental protection. Although global mobile cellular subscriptions will exceed 7 billion in 2015 (with nearly half of these subscriptions for mobile broadband), growth in mobile cellular subscriptions has slowed markedly.

The total number of unique mobile subscribers is between 3.7-5 billion people (according to different sources), with some observers interpreting this as an indication that the digital divide may soon be bridged.

However, the digital divide is proving stubbornly persistent in terms of access to broadband Internet, including the challenge of extending last-mile access to infrastructure to remote and rural communities. According to ITU’s latest data, 43% of the world’s population is now online with some form of regular access to the Internet. This leaves 57% or some 4.2 billion of the world’s people who still do not enjoy regular access to the Internet (ITU,  20157). In the Least Developed Countries (LDCs), only one out of every ten people is online.

The gender digital divide is also proving incredibly difficult to overcome, reflecting broader social gender inequalities.

The Structure of this Report