Why are so many without internet even where there is coverage – 03/03/2023 – Tech

There are today in the world, according to estimates by the GSMA, an entity that brings together telecommunications companies, 3.6 billion people without access to the telephone network. Of these, 3.2 billion are in the coverage area, but are impacted by other barriers that prevent access. One of the main ones is the cost.

The situation gains relevance as essential services digitize, including government, commerce and banking. Given this importance, experts even debate whether, by gaining the status of a basic utility such as electricity and sanitation, connectivity should be considered a human right.

The exclusion, dubbed the “digital divide”, was one of the main topics under debate at the Mobile World Congress (MWC), a technology event focused on telecommunications that took place this week in Barcelona.

A GSMA report points out that the connected portion of the world’s population should go from the current 68% to 73% in 2030.

“This division is worse in less developed countries, where 36% of the population is connected. If you look at urban and rural areas, there is a big difference: 82% urban and 46% rural”, says Robert Opp, head of digital at the Programa das United Nations for Development.

Gender also matters: globally, 69% of men are online and 63% of women. In less developed areas, 43% of men and 30% of women, says Opp.

“Being on the wrong side of that divide makes you more vulnerable,” he adds. For him, it doesn’t matter much if the issue will be understood as a human right or not, as it is already clear that it is something urgent and critical for social development.

Opp warns that technology alone cannot solve the problem. It needs to be part of an ecosystem with business, government and regulation.

According to a GSMA report, factors that contribute to the lack of adherence in connected areas are the cost of plans and devices, in addition to the lack of digital skills, uselessness (when you are in a place where few online services are offered) and insecurity.

Jamie Zimmerman, director of connectivity for women and girls at the Bill & Melinda Gates foundation, cites a possible ripple effect of this disconnect, with some countries being privileged to be online first. “It’s a recipe for not only increasing the poverty of those who are already excluded, but also bringing even more fragility to the world”, she says.

“We want fast and reliable services, access to information, educating children online during a pandemic. All these needs are the same in high-income, middle-income and low-income countries,” says Zimmerman. “We see not only a digital divide, but also a connection quality divide.”

Yoon Chang, director of strategy and policy at the United Kingdom’s Federal Communications Commission, explains that the work to connect the country is based on a tripod: access, price and ability. “We need to ensure not only access, but that it is secure,” she says.

5G appears as hope to improve the situation. Atilio Rulli, vice president of public relations for Huawei Latin America, points out that this is partly due to the lower cost of 5G. “It consumes 35% less energy at each station”, he exemplifies.

In Brazil, the 5G auction came with an obligation to invest in infrastructure to connect more places with 4G.

In practice, this does not mean the ultra-fast connection for everyone. Anil Darji, head of network architecture at British operator Three, explains that the strategy uses a mix of different wave frequencies. Only the highest allow high speeds, one of the hallmarks of the generation, but the others maintain other benefits, such as low latency, stability and capacity for many devices.

“In some areas, the investment to deploy the technology is not sustainable. In the United Kingdom, the government financed the development in rural areas”, he said.

The GSMA’s annual report, released throughout the MWC, estimates that 5G will be the majority form of mobile internet by 2029, surpassing 4G with 54% of connections. In more developed markets, it should correspond to 85%.

Another study by the entity, specifically on Latin America, released in November last year, shows that 4G should prevail in the region in the coming years. Forecasts, by 2025, say that 67% of people in the region will be connected to the internet by then, against 60% in 2021.

Brazil should lead the adhesion to 5G. The estimate is that it corresponds to 17% of mobile connections, surpassing 2G and 3G combined, with 5%, against 16% in 2021.

The entity also points out that 4% of the population of Latin America lives in areas without telephone coverage. Another 36% are in covered areas, but do not use mobile internet.

Christopher Fabian, co-founder and leader of Giga, a Unicef ​​(United Nations Children’s Fund) project to bring the internet to schools, says that the urgency of the topic and the impact of the connection are so great that it doesn’t matter if it’s 5G or no.

“I’m happy with any G”, says Fabian, citing that evolution is fast after implementation. “It’s like we create a bunch of vampires who want more and more,” he jokes.

The minimum required for a school would be 20 Mbps download and 10 Mbps upload. For comparison, a study by Huawei in partnership with Softex (Association for the Promotion of Excellence in Brazilian Software) placed the national average above 80 in broadband.

To reach where transmission towers cannot reach, mobile internet via satellite should appear as an option in the coming years. Daniel Dooley, commercial head of Lynk, explains that the technology they invented in 2016 to connect to phones from space is in the final testing phase, and the results are encouraging.

Satellite telephony already exists, but the difference in these new tools is the ability to connect to any phone. For the customer, it makes no difference whether communication is made by a station on Earth or miles away in the sky.

The journalist traveled at the invitation of Huawei