450 million lack access to mobile broadband- Report
GSMA has said that 19 per cent of people living in Nigeria, and other Sub-Saharan African countries do not have access to mobile broadband coverage.
The industry organization which represents the interests of mobile network operators worldwide said this in its “The State of Mobile Internet Connectivity Report 2021′ report.
The report said a number of people without access to mobile broadband coverage now stands at 450 million people, about 6 per cent of the world population.
GSMA said, “Those living in areas without mobile broadband coverage now stands at 450 million people, or six person of the world’s population.
“The biggest increases in coverage have occurred in Sub-Saharan Africa and the Pacific Islands.
“However, there has been a slow down in covering the remaining population and the population gap only reducing by one per cent point in 2020.
“Sub-Saharan Africa is still the region with the largest coverage gap, at 19 per cent”.
The organization said 3.4 billion (about 43 percent of the world’s population) people do not use mobile internet despite living in areas with mobile broadband coverage.
It added that mobile internet usage was at 61 per cent in South Asia.
According to GSMA, mobile phones are now more affordable in Nigeria and other Sub-Saharan African countries and data are now more affordable in South Asia.
The organization added that about 47 per cent (210 million people) in Sub-Saharan Africa did not use mobile internet despite the region’s continued effort to increase mobile broadband access, especially with major 3G and 4G rollouts in West and East Africa, including Nigeria, Mali and Tanzania.
The organization added that smartphone adoption was on the rise, accounting for 68% of total mobile connections in 2020, compared to 64 per cent in 2019 and 47 per cent in 2016.
It said, “Growth continues in Sub-Saharan Africa but it is still lagging behind other regions, with smartphones accounting for less than half of total connections.
“Sub-Saharan Africa has the highest percentage of basic or feature phone connections, accounting for 45 per cent of all connections.
“In addition, a significant share of smartphones in Sub-Saharan Africa support 3G only, whereas, in other regions, the majority of smartphones are 4G and 5G capable”.
The report added that there were now four million people connected to the internet through mobile, 225 million more when compared to 2019
