" ITREALMS: Billions shut out of Internet access by government inactions

Tuesday, February 21, 2017

Billions shut out of Internet access by government inactions

The 2017 Affordability Report has been released with indication that billions shut out of internet access by government inactions, reports ITRealms.

The report released by Alliance for Affordable Internet (A4AI) tracks policy progress toward affordable internet across 58 low- and middle-income countries.

According to the Communications Manager, A4AI, Lauran Potter the report found out that governments are failing their citizens when it comes to providing affordable internet access. 

“Just 19 countries surveyed have "affordable" internet access,” she said, stressing that policies have barely changed since this research series started in 2014.

They observed that nearly half the countries surveyed have badly outdated or non-existent plans to guide broadband development, whereas public funds to expand access to the disconnected, if they exist, are sitting dormant in over a third of countries.

ITRealms reports that ​Nigeria, for instance, ranks 13th out of 58 on this year's Affordability Drivers Index, which measures the policies in place to enable affordable access.

Last year's report, ITRealms recalls, showed a miss on the global target of universal, affordable access by over 20 years.

This year's report further confirmed that government inaction has remained a threat to entrench the digital divide and worsen global inequality.


A4AI, therefore, called on leaders to take urgent action to reverse this course and enable access for the over 4 billion offline as at the time of releasing the report.

Chuks Egbune/GEE

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