Georgetown University

STIA-369-01 Information and Communication Technology for Development

8 February 2011

Internet in
Developing Countries
Michael.Minges@gmail.com

Tuesday, February 8, 2011 1

 Topics

• Intro
• Global development goals
• The digital divide
• ICT4D 2.0
• Death of distance
• Broadband

Tuesday, February 8, 2011 2

 Enemies of the Internet

Syria
Iran Uzbekistan Turkmenistan

North
Korea

China

Cuba

Vietnam

Saudi
Tunisia Egypt
Arabia
Burma

http://
www.foreignaffairs.com/
articles/67038/clay-shirky/
the-political-power-of-social-
media

Tuesday, February 8, 2011 3

 20
60M 72 75 80 20M 18 20
Millions Millions 16
Per 100 people Per 100 people 14
45M
40
54 60
+4,438% 15M 15

30M 40 10M 8 10
7
24 6
18 4
15M 11 20 5M 3 5
2 4 7 8
+2669% 0M
1 2
0
0M 0
2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010
Mobile subscriptions Internet users
!The world is changing, we are changing...Media
plays an important role in this...Satellite TV,
Internet, mobile phone...life is not the same as it Source: Ministry of Communications &
Information Technology, Eutelsat
used to be...you cannot keep things quiet now..."
2010=mid-year.
—A Nation In Waiting. http://english.aljazeera.net/
programmes/general/
2008/12/200812319221110170.html

International Internet bandwidth Satellite TV dishes

100,000 1500 15M 80
Mbps 1,251 Millions
Bits per person % households 61
56
75,000 909 1125 +315555% 11M 51 60

50,000 750 8M 34 40
352 22
25,000 220 375 15
4M 20
+1180%
11
62
135 7 7 7 8
0 4 11 17 23
0 0 0M 0
2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010
Tuesday, February 8, 2011 4
 Who is developing?

Population by Human Distribution of population by

Development status, millions, economic development status,
2010 2010

4,000
Advanced (33)
3,000 15%

2,000
Emerging & Developing (150)
1,000 85%

0
Very High High Medium Low

UNDP, Human Development Report 2010 IMF, World Economic Outlook, Oct. 2010

Tuesday, February 8, 2011 5

 MDGs
People living on less than $1.25 a day (millions)
1,815
683

China 1,371
208

579
South Asia 595

387
295 Sub-Saharan Africa
190 East Asia & Pacific 109
http://www.un.org/ 68 Other 72
millenniumgoals/
1990 Source: World Bank (http://go.worldbank.org/JIO7WY61V0)..
2005

Tuesday, February 8, 2011 6

 “ICT is playing a vital role in advancing
economic growth and improving
governance. There are many
opportunities for developing countries
to advance development through
innovative use of ICT.”
—World Bank

Phnom Penh, Cambodia July 2001

Tuesday, February 8, 2011 7

 Gender, pollution & telework in Ireland
Telework: “persons who work from home and could not do so without the use of a
computer with a telecommunications link.”

More teleworkers = more people working at home = less car pollution (MDG #7)

Telework: 2.3%

Source: Central Statistics Office (Ireland).

Work at home 9.7% Home 6.6%
Teleworkers
All workers Public
transport,
100 walk, bicycle
36.2%

75
72 Car 54.1%
68 Away
Number of from
50 56 vehicles increased home
49 by 68% from 91.1%
41 44 41 1990-2001. Related
25 33 CO2 emissions
increased by 122%
in the same period.
0 College Women Have Children Married
Getting to work Location of work

More tertiary education = more women with small children teleworking (MDG #3)

Tuesday, February 8, 2011 8

 Impact of ICTs on MDGs

$ & ' ) ( #
% Gender Maternal
Universal Child Combat Environ-
End Poverty
Equality Health health HIV/AIDS mental
& Hunger Education
sustain-
ability

24
5.7 143
0.8

-10 -50 -2
% change

Increase in Increase in Increase in Decrease in Decrease in Increase in Decrease in

income of primary female infant health maternal condom CO2 car
Bangladesh school tertiary problems mortality imports in emissions
village phone enrollment in school among following St. Lucia from
owners Nepal from enrollment in families ICT-based after HIV telework in
teachers Australia using program in radio show Ireland
trained using from online telemedicine Uganda
ICTs education in US

ITU: World Telecommunication Development Report 2003.

Tuesday, February 8, 2011 9
 In cooperation with the private sector, make available the
benefits of new technologies, especially information and
communications

Tuesday, February 8, 2011 10

 WSIS: MDGs for ICTs
“We, the representatives of the peoples of the world,
assembled in Geneva from 10-12 December 2003 for
the first phase of the World Summit on the
Information Society, declare our common desire and
commitment to build a people-centred, inclusive and
development-oriented Information Society, where
everyone can create, access, utilize and share information
and knowledge, enabling individuals, communities and
peoples to achieve their full potential in promoting their
sustainable development and improving their quality of
life, premised on the purposes and principles of the
Charter of the United Nations and respecting fully and
upholding the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Our challenge is to harness the potential of information
and communication technology to promote the
development goals of the Millennium Declaration...”
Declaration of Principles
http://www.itu.int/wsis/index.html
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
Plan of Action
a. to connect villages with ICTs and establish
community access points;
b. to connect universities, colleges, secondary schools
and primary schools with ICTs;
c. to connect scientific and research centres with ICTs;
d. to connect public libraries, cultural centres, museums,
post offices and archives with ICTs;
e. to connect health centres and hospitals with ICTs;
f. to connect all local and central government
departments and establish websites and email
addresses;
g. to adapt all primary and secondary school curricula to
meet the challenges of the Information Society,
taking into account national circumstances;
h. to ensure that all of the world's population have
access to television and radio services;
i. to encourage the development of content and to put in
place technical conditions in order to facilitate the
presence and use of all world languages on the
Internet;
j. to ensure that more than half the world’s inhabitants
have access to ICTs within their reach.
11
 Internet users per 100 people
Advanced Developing Difference

50

40

30

58.2
55.7
52.2
48.7 20
44.6 46.5
41.1
34.4
30.8 14.8
25.1 11.7 10
17.5 8.9
7.3
11.7 5.9
7.6 4.8
4.1 3.7
0.3 0.5 0.8 1.1 2.2 2.4
0.2 0.4 0.9 1.6 0
0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.1
1990 1992 1994 1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008

Tuesday, February 8, 2011 12

Internet users per 100 people Digital Divide

Pervasive (19)

Common (20)

Established (47)

Experimental (81)

GDP per capita

Tuesday, February 8, 2011 13
 Only half the problem is economic

Mexico, reasons for not having computer or Internet 2008

Homes without computer Homes with computer no Internet

Lack of economic resources Lack of economic resources

Other:
• Don’t need
• Don’t know
how to use
• Not
interested
Source: INEGI.

Tuesday, February 8, 2011 14

 The ③ L’s
Literacy Learning Language

Vanessa Gray and Michael Minges. “It’s not just infrastructure: The 3 L’s & the Internet in South
East Asia.” INET 2002. Washington. DC, United States. 18-21 June 2002
http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/ict/papers/2002/inet02/VG.pdf

Literacy & learning by human development Number of

Speakers %
status languages
Adult literacy rate
Population with at least secondary education 8 2,308,548,848 38.7
100
92 77 2,346,900,757 39

75 81
304 951,916,458 16
74
61 895 283,116,716 5
50
41 1824 60,780,797 1
25
Number of languages recognized by
14 Google: 41
0 Source: ITU, World Telecommunication
Very high High Medium Low Development Report 2010.

Source: UNDP.

Tuesday, February 8, 2011 15

 Public access centers
“A powerful illustration of corporate strategy
linking business purpose to larger societal
purpose, e-Choupal leverages the Internet to
empower small and marginal farmers – who
constitute a majority of the 75% of the
population below the poverty line.”

e-Choupal Now

Multipurpose information center,

States covered 10 Guizhou province, China

Villages covered 40,000

No. of e-Choupals 6,500

Ho Chi Ming City,

Vietnam
Farmers e-empowered 4 million

http://www.itcportal.com/sustainability/lets-put-india-first/echoupal.aspx

Tuesday, February 8, 2011 16

 UN debut for $100 laptop for poor BBC News. 17 November 2005

Kofi
Annan:
"inspiring",
promise of economic "Every single
development for problem you can
children in think of, poverty,
developing peace, the
countries. environment, is
solved with education
or including
education," said
Professor Negroponte.
"So when we make this
available, it is an
education project, not a 1st to
laptop project. The provide all
digital divide is a
learning divide -
primary school
digital is the means students with
through which
children
laptops (2006-09)
http://www.ictdata.org/2009/09/
learn ..." reinventing-classroom.html

Tuesday, February 8, 2011 17

 ICT4D 2.0
“We stand at a
fork in the Internet access
road. We can keep pushing
down the PC-based route when
less than 0.5 percent of African
villages so far have a link this way.
Or we can jump ship to a technology
that has already reached many poor
communities. Mobile telephony,
for example, already reaches
out to more than half the
African population.”

Heeks, Richard.
“ICT4D 2.0: The
Next Phase of
Applying ICT for
International
Development.”
Computer 41.6
(2008): 26-33.

Tuesday, February 8, 2011 18

 Mobile in Africa
South Africa, household durables, % Kenya, Use of mobile phone, %, 2009
100
83.9 Have used 90
79.1 82.7
72.9 63 SMS
75
65
59.7
23 Financial transactions
49.6
50 12 Access Internet
40.2
35
32.3
4 Watch TV
25 !"#$%&'%(')*%+,-)./&)0,("12%3,/4,5%&3)6,7"03,899:,

0
2000 2002 2004 2006 2008
Statistics South Africa
KNBS

“...their concepts of the Internet and media in general are consequently strongly
shaped by a distinct set of mobile applications.”
Kreutzer, Tino. “Internet and Online Media Usage on Mobile Phones among Low-Income Urban Youth in
Cape Town.” MobileActive.org. 1 May 2009.

Tuesday, February 8, 2011 19

 Information superhighway

The hacker tourist ventures forth across the wide and Source: Global Marine Systems Ltd
wondrous meatspace of three continents, chronicling the laying
of the longest wire on Earth.
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/4.12/ffglass_pr.html
Tuesday, February 8, 2011 20
 Death of Distance

“... a world in which

transmitting
information costs
almost nothing, in which
distance is irrelevant, and
in which any amount of
content is instantly
accessible...”

“... the playing

field is being
leveled...”

Tuesday, February 8, 2011 21

 Business Process Outsourcing (BPO)
US$171 billion (Garner, 2008)

Computer & information services exports

US$195 billion (WTO, 2009)

Information Technology Enabled Services (ITES)

US$500 billion (“addressable” market, 2008, McKinsey)

Tuesday, February 8, 2011 22

 Indian Offshoring
Services exports, 2009-10
Communications
2%
Software exports, US$ million Financial
6%
50,000 Business
18%
37,500 Software
75%
25,000

12,500 Computer & Information services exports, 2008

0
2000-01 2003-04 2006-07 2009-10 Other
24% EU
Source: Reserve Bank of India.
35%
USA
10%
India
Source: WTO. 30%
Tuesday, February 8, 2011 23
 Prerequisites for an Indian Internet user
September 2009
Population 1,199 million

Urban 12+ 266 million

So

Literate
urc

217 million
e:
ad
ap
ted
fro

91 million
m

English knowing
IA
MA
I.

Internet users as 19.5%

Computer
% of population
Literate
87 million
Claimed
user 71 million
6.4% Active
4.3%
user 52 million
Total 12+ 12+ urban

Tuesday, February 8, 2011 24

 China: Straight to No. 1
Telecommunications is one of the four strategic
pillars underpinning China!s economic
development and providing the necessary
platform from which to challenge the West for
Internet Users global hegemony. It is regarded a vital industry
(420 million) for Chinese strategic interests on several fronts:
• Acquisition of foreign technology;
Mobile
subscribers • Dual use military application;
(730 • Reinforcing China!s space and satellite
million) development programme; and
• Breaking into new markets.
Source: Executive Research Associates

Fixed US$ 25 billion

broadband
(104 export credit line
million) ICT exports
(US$346
million) US$ 30 billion
export credit line
Source: UCC.

Tuesday, February 8, 2011 25

 Uses of Internet
India China USA

100
94
87 87
75 80 83
76 79
72 75
71
65 66 66
50 57 58
54
45 47
40 37
25 33 33 35
29
24
15 18 16 14 13 12
8.6
0

Railway tickets
Information search

Telephony
Text chat

Jobsites

News
Financial information
Education

Music/Video
E-mail

Gaming

Online banking
Tuesday, February 8, 2011 26
 Broadband & the economy
“The growth As Ms
benefit that Qiang!s research
broadband provides for shows, access to the
developing countries was ... internet can provide an
about a 1.38 percentage point even bigger boost to
increase for each 10 percent economic growth than
increase in penetration. access to mobile
Despite its shorter history, broadband phones.
seems to have a higher growth impact
relative to communications
technologies such as fixed and
mobile telephony and the
Internet.”

A special report on telecoms in emerging markets

Sep 24th 2009
Finishing the job
Mobile-phone access will soon be universal.
The next task is to do the same for the internet
http://www.economist.com/node/14483856

Christine Zhen-Wei Qiang

Chapter 3
Economic Impacts of Broadband

Tuesday, February 8, 2011 27

 Broadband divide
Subscriptions per 100 inhabitants, 2009
Wired Wireless

North Africa 28.5 EU 36.5

EU 24.0 North America 34.0

East Asia & Pacific 8.1 East Asia & Pacific 9.7

Europe & Central Asia 7.1 WORLD 8.6

WORLD 7.0 Europe & Central Asia 5.3

Latin America & Caribbean 5.7 Middle East & North Africa 5.1

Middle East & North Africa 2.5 Latin America & Caribbean 3.4

South Asia 0.5 Sub-Saharan Africa 1.7

Sub-Saharan Africa 0.2 South Asia 0.1

Tuesday, February 8, 2011 28

 3 Pillars of Facilitating Broadband Demand
Accessibility
!Setting up broadband
access centers,
telecenters, kiosks, and
other public access points
!Connecting educational
institutions to broadband
networks
!Providing wireless Internet
services in public spaces
such as airports and
business districts
!Training all citizens to
access and use broadband
through digital literacy
programs
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
Affordability Attractiveness
!Lowering the cost of user !Supporting local, relevant
terminals by reducing Internet content in local
import duties and other languages
taxes or providing !Putting government and
targeted subsidies public information online
!Subsidizing broadband and creating e-government
equipment used in and other e-applications
educational institutions (such as those for health,
!Providing consumers with education, and agriculture)
information on providers, !Providing a legal
pricing options, and framework for e-
available technology commerce and other
applications
!Educating citizens about
the benefits of broadband
!Promoting broadband use
to businesses and
communities
29
 0
10
20
30
40
Korea (Rep.)
Lithuania
Latvia

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Romania
Netherlands
Moldova
Sweden
Aland Islands
Japan
Portugal
Switzerland
Germany
Singapore
Iceland
Bulgaria
Denmark
Belgium
Estonia
Speed

Liechtenstein
Hungary
Ukraine
France
Norway
Andorra
Source: Speedtest.net

Finland
Luxembourg
Russia
Austria
Slovakia
Czech Rep.
UK
USA
<1

20 countries
Download speed, Mbps, Feb. 2010

30
Tuesday, February 8, 2011 31
 Bandwidth explosion

Kenya Data Networks

International Internet Bandwidth (Mbps)
Internet users per 100 people
25,000 20

20,000 Fixed broadband

15
0.5%
15,000 Fixed wireless
10 0.7%
10,000
Internet subscriptions
5
5,000 June 2010

0 0 Mobile
2000 2003 2006 2009 98.8%
Kenya Communications Commission

Tuesday, February 8, 2011 32

 Conclusions

• ICT access & use varies with level of development & social &
cultural factors

• Developing countries making steady progress in access to mobile

phones

• “...those who want to be on-line already are...”

• “... concepts of the Internet and media in general are consequently

strongly shaped by a distinct set of mobile applications...”

• “I do surf up Internet via mobile phone…usually, I will surf up new

site, job site, and sport sites. However, if I really wanted to apply
for job, for example, I will still need to turn back to the PC...”

• The developmental/social/economic impacts of Internet and

implication of accessing Internet using different devices (PC/tablet/
smartphone/mobile) are still largely unknown

Tuesday, February 8, 2011 33

 MDGs

ICTs

Tuesday, February 8, 2011 34