Setting the foundation for universal meaningful
connectivity
While a lot is known about how many people are connected to the internet, the number of people “meaningfully connected” — with affordable and quality access — is much smaller and not clearly defined.
During a recent roundtable discussion, experts discussed what it means to be meaningfully connected, the ways in which this level of connection should be measured, and the importance of investing in meaningful connectivity in emerging markets. The discussion was hosted by E3 Capital, the United States Agency for International Development, and FMO, a Dutch development bank.
“We know that coverage does not necessarily equate to actual access, and certainly not meaningful access,” said Lydia Carroon, head of Europe, Middle East, and Africa Airband Initiative at Microsoft, which advances digital equity as a foundation for the empowerment and digital transformation across the world.
While entertainment is often the entry point for connectivity — people use the Internet to communicate with friends and family — there is hope that it expands to other areas of their lives such as using the internet for their family’s education and health, she said.
BECOMING MEANINGFULLY CONNECTED
The connectivity sector has been on a journey in continually setting higher targets on access for the world’s populations — transitioning from the goal of universal coverage to universal meaningful connectivity.
Meaningful connectivity largely boils down to quantifying the speed, affordability, and quality where the internet makes a difference in a person’s life beyond what is possible with basic coverage, said Frank McCosker, director of Global Good Net Works.
In April, the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), the Office of the UN Secretary-General’s Envoy on Technology, and other partners set definitions of universal and meaningful connectivity. This was done to help prioritize interventions, monitor progress, evaluate policy effectiveness, and galvanize efforts around achieving universal and meaningful connectivity by the end of the decade.
This type of meaningful connection should be at the core of any digital development agenda, said Sonia Jorge, executive director of the Alliance for Affordable Internet (A4AI).
A4AI has developed a theory of meaningful access which also looks at supportive social environments that “allow people to apply their full agency in how the internet affects their lives.”
“We cannot think about meaningful connectivity without the social context,” Sonia said. “We want to think of technology as very much a people-centered approach to solving problems and supporting livelihoods.”
Within countries, it is necessary there are policy frameworks that work to increase Internet access with 4G-like speeds, smartphone ownership, and unlimited, daily access at home, place of study, and work, Sonia said.
“It's not just about having the quality. It's also about having the right devices that allow the functionality,” she added.
After the infrastructure groundwork is laid — which includes access to energy — Lydia said support programs must be layered on top, so people are incentivized to engage with the internet. And access to the internet should be situated within communities in a way that spurs opportunity rather than division.
“Technology does not exist in a vacuum. Because of that, we have to frame it in a way that becomes useful and allows for opportunities. And most importantly, that it's a tool to equalize opportunity,” Sonia said. “Not one that will instead create further exclusion or inequality.”
“We need sustainable ecosystems that allow businesses to continue providing services,” Lydia said. “This helps prevent situations where communities experience stop-and-start connectivity, which limits their ability to create sustainable opportunities and actual business models that are commercially viable.”
“How do we create actual business models that are commercially viable around connectivity?” she asked.
MEASURING MEANINGFUL CONNECTIONS
To hold governments and other stakeholders accountable for enabling everyone on the planet to become meaningfully connected, metrics and targets are needed, according to Alex Wong, chief of special initiatives at ITU, which is the United Nations specialized agency for information and communication technologies.
ITU and UNICEF are co-chairs of the working group on further advancing access tothe internet globally, as part of the UN Secretary General's roadmap on digital cooperation. This working group developed a definition of meaningful connectivity that includes metrics around adequate levels of infrastructure, affordability, devices,
digital skills, security, and safety — with targets set for 2030.
There are three stages in which populations exist, Alex said. Either with no infrastructure to support access; basic connectivity where an available signal is present; or they have meaningful access. Everyone should meet that final stage by 2030.
But measuring this goal isn’t always straightforward. Of the indicators — infrastructure, affordability, devices, digital skills, security, and safety — some metrics are universally recognizable, while others are not collected comprehensively, Alex said.
For example, there are no commonly accepted definitions of what digital skills one needs for a meaningful connection, Sonia said.
And the metrics are minimum thresholds, she added. In one country, it's important to support people to own smartphones, whereas in other countries there is a need to incentivize governments to develop national policies to support access to more sophisticated devices, such as computers or tablets.
The value of the measurements is also dependent on whether organizations systematically collect comparable, reliable data, Sonia said. A4AI conducted detailed nationally representative surveys in nine countries.
'Very few organizations have the ability to go out to the field in over 200 countries, on an annual basis and collect information at the level of detail that we wish would be possible,” Sonia said.
But the sector can start creating a body of knowledge, and it can grow. Agreement on what is measured is a crucial starting point, she said. It then becomes crowdsourcing of measurements.
“That collective effort will be extremely important,”
Sonia said.
PURPOSEFUL TARGETING
Unequal societies lead to unequal access to the internet. For example, women and people with disabilities are often disadvantaged in becoming connected and accessing affordable devices.
'A country that has a digital gender gap that is very large will never be able to do well on meaningful connectivity if they are excluding a large percentage of their population,”
Sonia said.
Microsoft Airband has partnered with USAID on gender projects in six countries working with internet service and energy access providers aiming to connect women and girls.
“We know the opportunity cost for women to engage online is higher,”
Lydia said.
“We also know women are more likely to reinvest in their communities. They're also more likely to use the internet with their families and to use devices for education.”
Because of this, the connectivity sector should specifically target women in programming, Lydia said. Women can serve as community advocates to bring other women and members of their communities online.
And beyond gender, there are considerations around disabilities — if a person is hard of hearing they may need support to meaningfully use the internet.
“We certainly can't talk about meaningful connectivity, without saying we need to purposely target certain groups so that they engage. We have enough data and history at this time to know that they're not going to naturally just become online nternet users,”
Lydia said.
“If we don't target them, that is a whole portion of society that is going to be completely overlooked,” she added.
ACHIEVING AFFORDABILITY
Affordability is a major barrier to internet access. Nobody should pay more than 2% of their monthly per capita income for entry-level broadband — which equates to about 1 gigabyte, Sonia said.
“A lot of people around the world still don't have 1 gigabyte at an affordable rate,”
Sonia said.
And this figure is ever-evolving, Sonia said. ITU and A4AI want to elevate this to 2 gigabytes, and eventually 5 gigabytes. Given this, there is a need to push governments that have already reached affordability targets to continually set their sights higher.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, a lot of people were pushed online due to the circumstances, scores more were excluded due to a lack of affordability. Based on A4AI’s research, an estimated 75 million people in 11 countries are not able to afford 1 gigabyte per month now, whereas they were able to afford it before the pandemic,
Sonia said.
Infrastructure investment is critical for affordability, Lydia said. Commercial companies are incentivized to offer affordable internet if they can substantially lower the cost of infrastructure and deployment.
COMBATING THE DIGITAL DIVIDE
And as the sector sets more aspirational goals on reaching higher targets of connectivity, it must be approached with caution.
'As we go on the continuum, and we go to higher and higher targets, lower and lower affordability, are we actually making the digital divide bigger?'
Frank asked.
As technology and people's demands evolve, and connectivity becomes more integrated into their lives, there is the risk of excluding a much greater number of people, Sonia said.
'It means that we need to challenge ourselves to work better, and in more strategic ways to ensure that as new opportunities come to play, we bring more people in that journey of technology, both from a device perspective, and an affordability perspective,”
Sonia said.
The answers are already there to avoid this, Sonia said. This includes increased investment in infrastructure, programming, and policy.
Lydia notes the importance of investing in truly local entrepreneurs that create solutions for a local landscape rather than solely importing solutions that worked in other parts of the world.
We've seen that this doesn't always work. And so investment actually needs to be placed in the country with people who understand directly the barriers to access and are thinking creatively about how to get more people online and how to make that access more equitable, she said.
'The speed at which access to financing is available to startups must also match the
the speed at which technology evolves to create enabling ecosystems,'Lydia said.
'And governments can help de-risk investments with publicly declared policy pledges,' Alex said. Ghana, for example, pledged 155 million € from its Universal Service Fund to build out cell sites and infrastructure, as well as open and free spectrum usage.