UN Broadband Commission reveals growing digital divide
ITU and UNESCO’s UN Broadband Commission for Sustainable Development has released The State of Broadband 2017: Broadband Catalyzing Sustainable Development(link is external). The report provides a global snapshot of Internet access, examines trends in connectivity, reviews policy and regulatory developments, and presents a number of policy recommendations. Key findings from the report point out to a growing digital inequality between developed and developing countries, which is also accompanied by a growing gap in transmission speeds. The quality of connection is also very uneven among the 48% of the world population with access to the Internet. “The majority of the connected world remains under-connected, mostly in developing countries”. On the level of infrastructure deployment, the report remarked that there is fast-paced growth of Internet Exchange Points (IXPs) in Africa.
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