The International Telecommunication Union’s ‘Measuring the Information Society Report’ for 2017 has been unveiled at the 2017 World Telecommunication / ICT Indicators Symposium (WTIS) in Hammamet, Tunisia.
The 9th edition of the report features “a quantitative analysis of the information society”, and seeks to highlight emerging trends and measurement issues in ICT..
New to this edition is the inclusion of individual country profiles. These descriptions provide information on any “efforts made to increase the ICT access, use and proficiency of (…) citizens”.
Countries are compared to one another in the report, and any relative changes in rank are also highlighted.
Among the findings are an increase in the pervasiveness of mobile cellular networks – these continue to become more popular as fixed-telephone subscriptions fell below 1 billion.
Individuals in Europe are three times more likely to access the internet regularly than individuals in Africa, and households in developed countries are five times more likely to have a connection than households in the least developed countries.
There is a ‘gender digital divide’ in many parts of the world, with only 14% of women in the least developed countries having internet access compared to 20% of men.
ICT access improved the most in Namibia, Iran and Gabon. Access improved in all but eight countries worldwide.
The Asia-Pacific region and the Arab States are the most diverse areas in terms of connectivity, with some high ranking countries and some low ranking countries in each.
Artificial Intelligence and The Internet of Things both look set to have a transformative impact on the global economy in the coming decades, the report notes.
Read more here.