The state of broadband 2015: Broadband as a foundation for sustainable development

Every year, the ITU/UNESCO Broadband Commission for Digital Development ‘State of Broadband’ report takes the pulse of the global broadband industry and explores progress in broadband connectivity. This year’s report finds mixed messages about the growth of ICTs and the global state of broadband. Although strong growth rates continue for mobile broadband and Facebook usage, and mobile cellular subscriptions exceeded 7 billion for the first time during 2015, growth in both mobile cellular subscriptions and Internet usage has slowed sharply. The UN Broadband Commission’s 2011 targets have not been achieved by the target date of 2015 and seem unlikely to be achieved before 2020. Likewise, the milestone of four billion Internet users is unlikely to be surpassed before 2020. The growth in Facebook subscribers is now outpacing growth in the Internet. Internet growth By end 2015, some 3.2 billion people will be online, equating to over 43.4% of the total world population, and up from 2.9 billion a year earlier (almost 40.6% of the population). In the developing world, Internet penetration will surpass 35.3% by the end of 2015; penetration will still be under 10% at 9.5% in the UN-designated Least Developed Countries, however. Even though Internet penetration is approaching saturation in the developed world, with 82.2% of the population online, the global target of 60% set by the Broadband Commission in 2011, to be achieved by 2015, is unlikely to be achieved before 2021 at the earliest. Internet user penetration in the developing world is unlikely to achieve the Broadband Commission target of 50% before 2020. By the end of 2015, there will still be 57% of the world’s population – or four billion people – still offline. Household Internet access in developed countries is close to saturation, with more than 81.3% of households connected. The proportion of households in the developing world with Internet access has increased from 31.5% at the end of 2014 to over 34.1% a year later – still well short of the Broadband Commission target of 40% by 2015. Household connectivity figures mask strong disparities – fewer than 7% of households in LDCs have access, while in sub-Saharan Africa only 1 in 9 households is connected. According to Point Topic, Asia has the largest total number of broadband-connected homes, with nearly as many in total as Europe and the Americas combined. The gender gap in Internet users is proving stubbornly persistent, with an estimated 200 million more men online than women as recently as 2013; one major problem is that sex-disaggregated data are not yet widely reported by national governments and statistics agencies. Mobile growth The mobile industry is growing strongly, but unevenly. ITU forecasts that the milestone of seven billion mobile cellular subscriptions will be exceeded by end 2015, equivalent to a global penetration rate of 97 subscriptions per 100 people. ITU also estimates that there will be a total of almost 3.5 billion mobile broadband subscriptions by end 2015. Industry analysts predict 6.5 billion mobile broadband (3G/4G/5G) subscriptions by 2019, making mobile broadband the fastest growing ICT service in history. Asia-Pacific now accounts for half of all mobile broadband subscriptions, up from just under 45% at the end of 2014. In January 2015, China Mobile became the world’s largest mobile operator by number of subscribers. The rapid expansion of Asia-Pacific is squeezing other world regions in terms of their mobile broadband market share – Europe and the Americas saw declining proportional shares of mobile broadband subscriptions from the end of 2014 to the end of 2015, despite absolute increases in subscription numbers. Smartphones now dominate the mobile device market, and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. Ericsson forecasts that the number of smartphones in service could exceed ‘basic’ phones by 2016. While developed markets become saturated in terms of total mobile penetration, analysts still see plenty of room for growth, with only an estimated one third of all mobile subscriptions currently associated with a smartphone. In hindsight, the year 2014 is likely to prove a tipping point as the year in which growth in ‘3G’ services began to slow, as growth in ‘4G’ services accelerated. Continued in report. &nbsp

Rule of Thumb: Mobiles for governance in India

Between 1996 and 2012, India's standing dropped on five of the six indicators of governance developed by the World Bank. Today, with over 900 million mobile phone subscriptions, India's mobile revolution presents an unprecedented opportunity to address this deficit and bring good governance to the farthest corners of the country. Adding 10 mobile phones per 100 people in a developing country can lead to half a point of additional GDP growth per person. Rule of Thumb makes a case for m-governance, and for reimagining the ways in which governments and citizens function, transact and interact with each other. It also explores how, in India and the world over, non-profits and social businesses are marrying the ubiquity of mobile technology with governance systems and processes to produce great benefits for citizens and governments alike. Dasra mapped over 130 organizations and profiled the work of 11 organizations with the most impactful and scalable programs

Engaging ICTs as a “Tool” for eHealth prioritization on human development and poverty reduction in the African region

The association connecting information and communication technologies (ICTs) and well-being or poverty remains vague and research today has resulted to divergent conclusions. This paper defines ICTs as “tools” that facilitate communication and the processing and transmission of information and the sharing of knowledge by electronic means. In the African region context, we examine ICTs utilization that aims to improve the provision, access and information management in the health sector. This paper considers access to information as very important benefits that can be achieved in many areas including economic growth, education and healthcare. In healthcare, the roles that ICT plays in ensuring that health information is provided to healthcare providers and consumers to support improving the health of individuals and strengthening health systems, disease detection and prevention are crucial to development and poverty reduction as stated in the UN’s MDGs. For example, access to appropriate information can minimise visits to physicians and periods of hospitalisation for patients suffering from chronic conditions, such as asthma, diabetes, hypertension and HIV/AIDS. This will in turn reduce the cost of healthcare provision. ICTs have the potential to impact almost every aspect of health sector. The paper then proposed how ICTs can be used to reduce poverty and ensure that health information is well administered and reaches the right people, at the right time and in the right form

Big Data and Urban Planning in Pakistan: A Case Study of The Urban Unit

This Major Paper presents research on the use of big data for urban planning and smart cities in the global South. It does so through a case study of the use of data at the Urban Unit in the province of Punjab, Pakistan. Based on a series of interviews and extended literature review, I trace the evolution of a science of cities and the growth of urban informatics and smart cities. I then define big data and discuss its related opportunities and limitations. The bulk of this Paper consists of a case study of the Urban Unit and research findings regarding the use of data in planning in Pakistan. A number of challenges to the use of data are identified, classified into challenges regarding data access and reliability, data literacy, and institutional challenges. A major finding is that the practice of urban planning in Pakistan is quite limited in a number of ways. The final chapter shares recommendations from interviewees and reflections on research findings, focusing on the politics of data. The paper ends by discussing future research directions

The state of broadband 2012: achieving digital inclusion for all

With this Report, the Broadband Commission expands awareness and understanding of the importance of broadband networks, services, and applications for generating economic growth and achieving social progress. High-speed affordable broadband connectivity to the Internet is essential to modern society, offering widely recognized economic and social benefits (Annex 1). The Broadband Commission for Digital Development promotes the adoption of broadband-friendly practices and policies for all, so everyone can take advantage of the benefits offered by broadband. With this Report, the Broadband Commission expands awareness and understanding of the importance of broadband networks, services, and applications for generating economic growth and achieving social progress. It has been written collaboratively, drawing on insightful and thought-provoking contributions from our leading array of Commissioners and their organizations, foremost in their fields

Indian IT industry: a performance analysis and a model for possible adoption

India's software and services exports have been rising rapidly. The annual growth rate ranges between 20 -22% in IT services and nearly 55 % in IT-enabled services (ITES), such as call centres, Business Process Outsourcing ( BPO) and other administrative support operations. Together they are predicted to grow at 25% pa till 2010.The IT industry is highly export oriented and the exporters are predominantly Indian. The Indian BPOs (ITES) are moving up the value chain, handling high end data for airline information, insurance, banking sector and mortgage companies, enterprise resource planning, among others. Some of the companies have already moved into significantly higher value added segments such as mission- critical applications, development and support, product design, HR Management, knowledge process outsourcing for pharmaceutical companies and large complex projects. Software exports make up 20 % of India's total export revenue in 2003-04, up from 4.9 % in 1997.This figure is expected to go up to 44% of annual exports by 2010. Though India accounts for just about 3 % of the world market for information technology services, this sector has been growing at a scorching pace, helped by a large pool of English-speaking workers, nearly 4 million engineers and the increasing tribe of tech-savvy entrepreneurs in the country. The Information Technology industry currently accounts for almost 4.8 % of India's GDP. It will account for 7 % of India's GDP by 2010. Software and IT enabled services have emerged as a niche sector for India. This was one of the fastest growing sectors in the last decade with a compound annual growth rate exceeding 50 per cent. Software service exports increased from US $0.50 million in 1990 to$5.9 billion in 2000-01 to 23.6 billion dollars in 2005-06 recording a 34% growth. A compound annual growth of over 25% per annum is expected over the next 5 years even on the expanding base. The impact on the economy of projected software and IT enabled service exports of 60 billion by 2010 is likely to be profound. One manifestation is that India notched up a current account surplus in 2001-02, for the first time in 24 years. India further needs an open environment under GATS to promote exports of services through outsourcing and off-shoring . The present study examines the growth performance of India’s IT industries, with particular attention paid to the role of policy in this process. The study recognizes that emergence of a strong Indian IT industry happened due to concerted efforts on the part of the Government, particularly since 1980s, and host of other factors like Government-Diaspora relationships, private initiatives, emergence of software technology parks, clustering and public private partnerships. In this study we further look at the major parameters of the Indian IT and ICT industry in global context and give justification for including the main factors responsible for the IT boom in India. The study has looked into the past and present trends of the Indian IT industry and has considered further needs of IT sector to act as a catalyst of growth and development. The study has examined whether the Indian IT growth does have enough lessons for other countries to model their IT policy which may help them to shape their IT industry as driver of growth and development. IT firms were actually required to export software in the early days of the industry. This arose in the context of a shortage of foreign exchange in India in the 1970s and early 1980s.Software firms that needed imported inputs were required to earn foreign exchange themselves through export of software. This enabled them to get an idea of global markets very early. Besides formulating the national vision to promote software industry in India in the early 1980s by the government, there were deliberate attempt by the companies to promote software production like compilers, device drivers and operating system to cater to the domestic hardware sector. The high tariffs for the hardware sector had meant that the production of domestic hardware segment (including PCs which were introduced in the same period) had to be sustained requiring necessary software’s like operating system and drivers. Subsequently by mid 1980s, software started coming up unbundled with the hardware. This further gave fillip to the software industry and exports. The 1990s and early 2000 saw the rise of Software Technology Parks and formation of the Ministry of Information Technology, respectively. Despite liberalization of the 1991, the software industry flourished signifying the inherent strength that it developed due to benign and enabling environment provided over a period of time and also the fact that the 1990s saw the dramatic decline in telecommunication costs (government explicit intervention) and the commercialization of the internet along with the Y2K “problem”. The Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) model is used to work out technical efficiency of Information and Communication Technology ( ICT) Industry in host of countries which are front runners as far as ICT is concerned. India lags behind the most as far as ICT (not IT) is concerned. However, information and Communication technology industry has brought revolution in India because it has reduced intermediation in business and society, provided solutions across sectors and is increasingly becoming an important tool for national development. DEA is also applied to benchmark the performance of the 92 Indian Software Companies for 2005- 2006. The impact of various determinants on technical efficiency of the Indian Software companies is worked out using tobit regression. The impact of the explanatory factors on net exports of 92 software firms in 2005-06 is also worked out using simple regression exercise. The study also works out technical efficiency of 36 telecommunication firms in India and examines the determinants for new technology adoption by such industries. The study uses a Malmquist index to estimate total factor productivity changes decomposed into efficiency change( catching up to the frontier technology) and technical change( movement of the frontier) for the common software firms existing between 1996 and 2006 E-government is the application of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) by government agencies. Its use promises to enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of government and alter its relationship with the public. The study outlines E-Governance models for effective governance and for higher agricultural growth and development. E-Commerce primarily refers to buying, selling, marketing and servicing of products or services over internet and other computer networks. E-Commerce in India is just taking off with the advent of Railway and Online Air bookings and Net banking. The business is likely to grow to Rs 2300 crore by 2007 .Electronic commerce allows efficient interactions among customer, suppliers and development partners cutting down on transaction time and reducing the costs of doing business. The role of government is to facilitate the development of E-Commerce. For promoting South-South Cooperation and making it meaningful, the governments of the member countries need to pool resources and capabilities in R&D and human resource development for harnessing the fruits of Information and Communicating technologies. The study spells out in detail a number of examples where ICT has been used by rural communities for their benefit and for policy and development goals of the government in general. Web based software development and software product development (like device drivers) is necessary for providing complete business and consumer oriented solutions. These are also areas of interest for the Indian IT entrepreneurs to work upon in times to come. India’s relatively unsafe e-security environment is costing the BPO/ITES industry. The new IT Act (2000) needs to crucially define cyber harassment, phishing and cyber stalking to take care of cyber crimes in India. With the Indian IT/BPO exports to reach 60 billion by 2010, such companies need to invest in upgrading security measures for sustaining competitiveness. Organizations are not obliged under the IT Act to implement data security measures to protect consumers and clients. All this makes it obvious that qualitative progress cannot be made without enacting comprehensive data protection legislation. The Information and communication technologies (ICT) indicators of India are 13 million PCs, 40 million internet users- country with the fifth-largest number of Internet users,143 million mobile phones and 60 million subscribers for fixed lines in 2006. These are modest figures in comparison with the ICT penetration indicators achieved by the front runners like Taiwan, South Korea, Japan, UK, US, Nordic countries in Europe, among others (see the text for our strength and weaknesses in the ICT infrastructure in comparison with some other front runner countries). India’s Strengths lies in its availability of pool of scientists and engineers and quality of maths and science education along with quality of business schools. We are also ranked quite high in terms of cluster development, foreign technology licensing and Government prioritization of ICT. The weaknesses are the telecommunication infrastructure and speed of new business registration. However, Information and communication technologies(ICT) has brought about revolution in India particularly since 1990s .This is because it has reduced intermediation in business and society, reduced mobile and fixed telephony rates(because of concerted policy interventions by the government), provided solutions across sectors, provided both CDMA and GSM mobile technologies (and now Wi-Max technologies for internet access at different public places using PC), re-organizing firm level behavior, empowering individuals by providing them with more information and is increasingly becoming an important tool for national and rural development through E-governance, E-Banking and E- Commerce programmes. In addition, the success of the Information Technology industry in India is intertwined with information and communication technologies as most of the Information technology enabled services use such technologies for providing their services. The quantitative results of the paper answers the following- what orientations in inputs should be done by inefficient software and telecommunication firms and ICT Industry in general to reach the ‘ best practice frontier’( and have operational excellence), examines the relationship between technical efficiency and net exports of software firms along with the impact of host of explanatory factors like size of firms in terms of sales and total cost, among others on technical efficiency and net exports for cross section of software firms using tobit analysis, gives some reasons for relatively low ICT penetration in India and what can be done to transform India’s relatively good ICT readiness and ICT environment into higher ICT usage, answers why telecommunication firms are adopting new technologies and estimates total factor productivity changes in software firms which can be further used to model wage and price estimation of products and services offered by software firms over time. The paper confirms the improvements in productivity, efficiency change and technical change of the Indian Software industry from 1996 to 2006. Synopsis Chapter Wise Chapter one describes the major parameters of the Indian Information Technology (IT) Industry in India today and in the immediate past. The chapter further analyzes the reason for the ‘boom’ in the Indian IT sector. We also outline an electronic governance Model which can become a tool for effective governance. DEA is applied to benchmark the performance of the 92 Indian Software Companies for 2005- 2006. The impact of various determinants on technical efficiency of the Indian Software companies is worked out using tobit regression. The impact of the explanatory factors on net exports of 92 software firms in 2005-06 is also worked out using simple regression exercise. . Further this chapter uses a Malmquist index to estimate total factor productivity changes decomposed into efficiency change and technical change for the common software firms existing between 1996 and 2006. Chapter two gives an account of the position of the Indian Information Technology (IT) Industry and the Indian Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Industry in the global context and analyzes the strengths and weaknesses of ICT Infrastructure across some countries. Technical Efficiency of the Indian ICT sector is worked out using the mathematical model of Data Envelopment Analysis. The study also works out technical efficiency of 36 telecommunication firms in India and examines the determinants for new technology adoption by such industries. Chapter Three describes why and how the Indian IT industry can act as a catalyst of growth and development. An account of an effective electronic governance model for Agriculture Sector is also given. Chapter Four looks at the past of IT industry since 1960s keeping policy in mind. This chapter also outlines an export success model . Such models can be emulated by other countries. Chapter five describes the hurdles and constraints faced by the India IT industry and give an account of the policies and strategies which can be adopted to address the hurdles and concerns of the ICT sector. The last Chapter gives the conclusions, suggestions and policy advice for making IT as a tool for addressing some core inadequacies in the system like poverty, inequality, healthcare and education, among others.IT; ICT; ITPOLICY; OUTSOURCING; DEA ANALYSIS; TECHNICAL EFFICIENCY; TOBIT; NETEXPORTS; MALMQUIST INDEX; TOTAL FACTOR PRODUCTIVITY CHANGE; EFFICIENCY CHANGE; TECHNICAL CHANGE

A qualitative inquiry of ICT based socio-economic development in developing countries: the case of Pakistan.

The role of information communication technologies (ICT) growth in citizens’ political participation, socio-economic development, and poverty alleviation is an active area of study within information systems (IS) research in developing countries. This dissertation contributes in (1) developing an historical perspective of ICT growth, (2) identifying antecedents of ICT growth, (3) proposing extensions in ‘design-actuality gaps framework’ (for ICT policy analysis), (4) extending dimensions of ICT based socio-economic development, and (5) in integrating relationship between ICT growth and socio-economic development. The data collection was done in three phases from December 2006 to January 2009 in Pakistan. A total of 54 officials who made or influenced government’s ICT policies and 46 citizens participated. The qualitative analysis shows that government’s policies play an important role in ICT growth. However, political instability and lack of citizens’ involvement in policy design leads to inconsistent policies which can impede realization of the benefits of ICT growth. The findings have practical implications for government’s ICT policy design and evaluation, understanding of the antecedents of ICT growth, and ICT based socio-economic development. The recommendations for ICT policy design in this research can potentially benefit governments in increasing citizens’ quality of life, socio-economic development, and poverty alleviation

The politics of internet infrastructure: communication policy, governmentality and subjectivation in Chhattisgarh, India

This thesis examines the role of internet infrastructure and its associated discourses in processes of governmentality and subject formation in low and middle-income countries of the global South. Using data collected in the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh as its core case, it asks questions about the interrelationship between policy and political discourse, new information and communications infrastructure, private capital, and how citizens come to know and/or experience internet infrastructure in their everyday lives. Since 2014, The National Optical Fibre Network (NOFN, which began in 2011 under the then UPA government) has been reshaped and rebranded as part of ‘Digital India’ by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his far-right Hindutva Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Alongside the cables and connectivity, the BJP and allied Hindu extremist organisations have targeted minorities and women through mob violence and (on and offline) hate speech, while a small number of crony capitalist corporations have seen immense profits. Unpicking the links between these processes, the thesis argues that internet infrastructure has become crucial to expanding a particular unregulated brand of capitalism and to narrowing civic subjectivities. Infrastructures constellate and circulate material and symbolic goods in an institutionalised manner to produce collectivities. Using discourse analysis shows that since the late 1980s, in a context of increasing neoliberalism, internet infrastructure emerged within a discursive regime marked by the fetishisation of systems rationality, enumeration, scientism and economism to produce what can be called digital governmentality. Digital governmentality enables and reinforces a centralised Hindu nationalism mediated by digital technologies and networks. Using semi-structured interviews and participant observation in the city of Ambikapur, and close to 50 villages in Surguja district of Chhattisgarh, data chapters describe a wide range of ‘infrastructural practices.’ The analysis centres on how subjects imagine, frame and experience these practices. Dominant caste groups in Ambikapur seek to subvert governmentality in practice but also uphold and reproduce the rationalities that drive governmental authority – such as efficiency and transparency. Adivasis (indigenous groups) who reside in surrounding rural areas are subject to a political economic regime overdetermined by coal mining and destruction of their land, forests and water resources. Internet infrastructure is non-existent or broken, along with other missing infrastructural substrates such as electricity and water. Adivasis face infrastructural control as a specific mode of governmentality where power is exerted not from the top in directly coercive ways but rather through mundane infrastructural practices, thereby exerting authority in procedural ways. In other instances, Adivasis’ processes of subject formation are entangled with (the reality and promise of) internet infrastructure in complex ways – ranging from cruel optimism to social haunting. The thesis makes an original contribution to the emerging sub-field of infrastructure studies by providing a new way of studying communicative infrastructures involving: a renewed emphasis on relationality (infrastructures, governmentality and subjectivation as relational processes and practices); situating internet infrastructures within broader infrastructures; and a historical analysis of how infrastructure is caught up in exercise of power relations. With significant emphasis on the concerns and interests of indigenous peoples in India, the final chapters of the thesis also contribute to a decolonisation of media and communications as a field, and to avoiding orientalist essentialism