New Report Into Global Telecoms Development

Although there has been global progress in improving access to Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), poor countries still lag behind in making ICT applications commonplace in governments, schools and business, says the World Bank in a new report that urges developing country governments to work across ministries and in partnership with the private sector to extend the reach and use of ICT.

"The report shows that private sector competition remains the driving force in extending telecommunications access to billions of people around the World," says World Bank's Vice President of Infrastructure Kathy Sierra. "But cooperation is also key to ensuring further progress - cooperation between government and private sector to connect the next billions, within governments to extend e-services to citizens, and across countries to ensure regional access and connectivity."

Over the past 25 years, developing countries have considerably increased ICT access, especially for telephone services. Between 1980 and 2005, the number of telephone subscribers in developing countries rose by over 30 times. In 1980, developing countries accounted for only 20% of the world's telephone lines. In 2005, 60% of the world's phones were in developing countries.

According to the report, such expansion has been driven by the technological revolution of mobile telephony as well as private competition. By 2003, 130 countries had at least three competing providers of mobile services. Opening up to private competition has also led to huge inflows of investment from overseas. Between 1990 and 2003, for example, 122 of 154 developing countries received foreign investment in telecommunications, and annual FDI in telecommunications in developing countries have increased from US$2 billion in 1990 to a high of approximately US$35 billion. In coming years, the level of annual investment going into the ICT sector in emerging market could reach US$100 billion.

"This report shows that completing the transition to well-regulated and competitive service provision remains the foundation of exploiting ICT for development. But there is still some way to go considering, for example, that nearly half of the World's countries retain monopolies on fixed local and international service provision, making the costs of Internet connectivity exceedingly high and unaffordable" says Mohsen Khalil, Director of the World Bank Group's Global ICT Department. "If ICT is to fulfill its potential as a significant catalyst of income growth and progress towards the Millennium Development Goals, there is much more to do."

There is, for example, a continued need for government support to "access" initiatives, Khalil explains. Going beyond fair and effective private sector competition, the report also outlines innovative public-private partnerships to extend access to rural and remote areas.

Among developing regions, the telephone access rate was highest in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, where between 2000 and 2004 it more than doubled to 730 per 1,000 people. But growth was highest in Sub-Saharan Africa, with the rate tripling, albeit to a still-low 103 subscribers per 1,000 people. During the same period, the fastest growth of Internet users, 370 percent, occurred in the Middle East and North Africa.

The report can be pre-ordered from the World Bank - for just US$40"

Posted to the site on 13th March 2006