Roving reporter Katim Touray writes to us about this report: “Interestingly, The Gambia (my country) has relatively high marks in the report, although these numbers belie the reality on the ground: I might have a 1 MB ADSL connection, but I only get electricity from the grid every other day! Nevertheless, it seems a lot of progress has been connecting more people to the Internet. Well done!”
“While we are disappointed by the extremely slow policy progress we’ve seen over this past year, we are heartened by the emergence of new public access solutions to connectivity challenges. Public access — or the offering of free, lower-cost, or subsidised internet access in public places — offers an untapped opportunity to connect those that cannot pay for regular internet use, even once prices have dropped to a more affordable level. New programmes in a number of countries, including Colombia, Costa Rica and Botswana, offer promising approaches to connecting those at the base of the pyramid. Public access has the potential to make a big dent in internet access and use levels, and requires leadership and focus from policymakers as they seek to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.”
A4AI Executive Director Sonia Jorge
The 2017 edition of the Affordability Report is available at http://a4ai.org/affordability-report/report/2017/, along with all supporting data and an interactive data explorer.
From the Alliance for the Affordable internet’s 2017 Report (press release).