TELECOMS

GLOBAL ICT: Developing markets encouraged to work with Private Sector

It took 113 years from the invention of the telephone for it to achieve 10% global penetration, the comparative figure for mobile telephony is 15 years whilst internet usage achieved the 10% figure only 12 years after the invention of the WWW. These bald figures can disguise great disparity across the digital divide even within continents. The World Bank has noted that worldwide internet use quadrupled between 2000 and 2005. But while developed nations have more than 300 secure internet servers per one million people, developing nations have fewer than two. Canada has more secure servers than all the developing countries combined.

The Bank urges developing countries to work in partnership with the private sector to extend the reach and use of ICT there is also a need to break down existing monopolies in developing countries.