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Over the years, the Alliance for Affordable Internet (A4AI) has been tasked with monitoring Internet costs among consumers and industry players in various parts of the world, with the aim of finding and implementing ways to improve the things.
Each year, the A4AI presents something called the “Affordability Report,” which represents part of the organization’s ongoing efforts to “measure policy progress toward an affordable Internet.”
And this year has been no different. The 2020 Affordability Report has just come out of the oven and, among other things, this year’s report “calls on governments to develop effective national broadband plans to make internet access more affordable and enable more people connect. “
The 2020 report is based on policy expert surveys conducted in 72 countries, almost all low- and middle-income, in the African, Asian, Latin American and Caribbean regions.
Now to the main gist on how African countries are doing on the Internet affordability issue: well, it’s kind of a mixed bag.
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The UN Broadband Commission defines Internet affordability as ‘1 for 2’, that is, 1 GB of mobile broadband that costs no more than 2 percent of average monthly income. And it seems that some African nations have it better than others.
For every Rwanda where the price of 1 GB as a fraction of average monthly income has decreased from 20.16 percent to 3.39 percent between 2015 and 2019, there is Malawi where the figure reaches 16 percent of monthly income, or worse, a Congo where it is even higher.
Clearly, several countries still have a long way to go to reach the healthy threshold, especially among low-income countries. But not everything is pessimism.
According to the report, Africa has seen the greatest advances in broadband policy during the year under review.
Although Africa remains the region with the lowest average Affordability Drivers Index (ADI) score, this year the continent saw the fastest improvement (6.7 percent since 2019), with countries improving planning, better spectrum management and support programs to reduce the digital gender gap.
The A4AI defines the ADI score as an assessment of how well a country’s policies, regulations, and overall supply environment are working to reduce industry costs and ultimately create more affordable broadband.
It is important to note that the ADI score does not measure actual prices for broadband or indicate how affordable the Internet is in a given country. Instead, it ranks countries in two main policy groups: Infrastructure and Access. However, ADI’s high scores correlate with lower broadband costs for both industry and consumers.
Generally, the A4AI states that broadband policies continue to improve in the countries studied. The average ADI score in the countries studied was reported to have increased by 13.6 points, from 42 to 55.6 since 2014, with the most notable improvements in low-income countries.
Furthermore, in general, mobile broadband prices have fallen consistently across countries within the ADI, with the average cost of 1GB data declining by more than half since 2015, from 7.0 percent to 3.1 percent of income. average monthly.
As mentioned above, Rwanda has seen 1GB data drop to less than a fifth of its 2015 price, from 20.2 percent to 3.39 percent of average monthly income. On average, prices in low- and middle-income countries have become more affordable, from 7.0 percent of average monthly income in 2015 to 3.1 percent in 2019.
The 2020 Affordability Report also showed that among the least developed nations, six of the top 10 with the greatest improvement in IDA are African nations. These include Senegal, Benin, Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Mali.
It was also noted that a standout, Ethiopia, has seen its ADI score rise from 2.31 in 2014 to 20.37 in 2020, and this may have been sparked by talks to finally liberalize its hitherto closed telecom market.
The latest report presents an overview of progress in some parts and problems in others. But more importantly, it reiterates that more must be done to connect the unconnected.
“An International Telecommunication Union (ITU) report this year estimates that $ 428 billion of additional investment is required over ten years to deliver high-quality broadband to the world’s unconnected population. The need is most acute in Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, Southeast Asia and the Pacific, ”reads part of the report.
Featured Image Courtesy: AA4I
