ICTs, LDCs and the SDGs - Achieving universal and affordable Internet in the least developed countries
Acknowledgements
Foreword
1 Introduction

1.1 The Least Developed Countries (LDCs)
1.2 Broadband Internet for the LDCs
1.3 SDG Target 9.c and the Internet
1.4 Digital gaps between LDCs and the rest of the world

1.4.1 The connectivity gap
1.4.2 The affordability gap
1.4.3 The socio-economic gap
1.4.4 Roadmap to the rest of the report

2 Expanding supply-side infrastructure

2.1 Local access networks

2.1.1 Mobile
2.1.2 Broadband
2.1.3 Quality
2.1.4 Electricity

2.2 National and regional backbones

2.2.1 National backbones
2.2.2 Regional and cross-border connections
2.2.3 International connectivity

2.3 The "Invisible Mile"

2.3.1 Moving to the fifth generation of regulation
2.3.2 Spectrum management
2.3.3 Infrastructure sharing, data protection and cybersecurity
2.3.4 Universal service funds

2.4 Conclusions

3 Sustaining the Internet ecosystem

3.1 The underappreciated ccTLD
3.2 The critical role of data centres
3.3 IXPs: Beyond exchanging traffic
3.4 Conclusions

4 Making the Internet affordable

4.1 Rethinking affordability
4.2 How much data is enough?
4.3 Zero-rated services and OTT: Supplements or artificial sweeteners?
4.4 Competition and pricing
4.5 Conclusions

5 Skills for using the Internet

5.1 Digital literacy
5.2 The power of secondary education
5.3 Digital literacy for the masses
5.4 Conclusions

6 Progress towards achieving SDG Target 9.c

6.1 Leap-frogging
6.2 Recommendations

References
Annex 1

Basic Indicators, 2016
Infrastructure Access Indicators, 2016
Infrastructure Backbone Indicators, 2016
Core Internet Infrastructure Indicators, 2016
Affordability Indicators, 2016
Skills Indicators
The three dimensions of SDG Target 9.c (Access, Affordability and Skills) and Internet Uptake

Table 1.1: LDCs by ITU region and income grouping
Table 2.1: Preparation of households with a mobile phone (in %) broken down by urban/rural households, latest available survey (2012-2016), LDCs
Table 2.2: Submarine cables in Africa
Table 2.3: LDCs by generation of regulation
Table 3.1: LDCs with active IXP, 2017
Table 6.1: Top performers by category
Table 6.2: Performance across three dimensions of Internet use: access, affordability and skills
Table 6.3: Experienced strategic private investors in Bangladesh and Myanmar
Figure 1.1: Key components that will drive the achievement of SDG Target 9.c to provide universal and affordable access to the Internet in least developed countries by 2020.
Figure 1.2: Map of LDCs according to ITU regional classification
The Pink Phones project in Cambodia empowers female farmers
Figure 1.3: Internet use and proportion of population not online by country, 2017, LDCs
Figure 1.4: ICT penetration levels by level of development, 2017
Figure 1.5: Route metres of fibre and microwave backbone per capita by region, 2016
Figure 1.6: Share of total international Internet bandwidth and International Internet bandwidth per inhabitant, by region
Figure 1.7: Progress towards the target of making broadband affordable, 2016
Figure 1.8: Fixed- and mobile broadband prices 2016, and mobile broadband prices 2013-2016
Figure 1.9: Proportion of individuals using the Internet by gender 2016, and Internet user gender gap 2013 and 2017
Figure 1.10: Demand- and supply-side measures to increase Internet use
Figure 2.1: The different miles of ICT infrastructure
Figure 2.2: Mobile cellular subscriptions (per 100 inhabitants)
Figure 2.3: 2G Mobile coverage (% of population), LDCs
Figure 2.4: Availability of 3G network and 3G coverage (% of population), LDCs
Figure 2.5: Average webpage load time (seconds), first quarter 2016, LDCs
Figure 2.6: Access to electricity
Figure 2.7: Price of electricity, 2016
Figure 2.8: Generations of regulation
Figure 2.9: LDCs with a universal service fund and percentage of funds disbursed in African LDCs
Figure 3.1: The virtuous cycle of local Internet infrastructure
Figure 3.2: ccTLD processing model
Figure 3.3: LDCs: Distribution of ccTLDs (left) and central governments using ccTLD (right), 2017
Figure 3.4: Relation between ccTLD registrations and Internet users
Figure 3.5: Marketing the .SN ccTLD in Senegal, 2017
Figure 3.6: Small businesses online web presence in selected economies (left) and reasons for not having a website, 2015 (right)
Figure 3.7: Tanzania: ccTLD registrations (left) and estimated impact from additional local web hosting (right)
Figure 3.8: Impact of local hosting in Rwanda
Figure 3.9: Lao PDR Energy Efficient Datacenter (LEED) compared to conventional data centre
Figure 3.10: IXPs in LDCs
Figure 3.11: Fibre-optic submarine cables landing and planned in Djibouti
Figure 3.12: Fundamental Internet infrastructure in LDCs, June 2017
Figure 4.1: ITU prepaid mobile broadband price basket (at least 500 MB per month), 2016
Figure 4.2: Relation between mobile broadband basket and Internet usage, 2015, LDCs
Figure 4.3: Seven strata of Zambian households
Figure 4.4: Communications as percentage of household expenditure and MTN data bundles available
Figure 4.5: MTN Zambia hourly, daily and weekly plans, June 2017
Figure 4.6: Main reason for selecting a mobile provider and barriers to household Internet access, Zambia, 2015
Figure 4.7: Zambia, Internet use by education and age, 2015
Figure 4.8: Mobile Internet bundles in the LDCs, 2017
Figure 4.9: MTN, Mobile data usage per month (left) and relation between mobile data usage per month and mobile broadband price basket
Figure 4.10: Fixed and mobile prices in Bhutan (left) and Bangladesh (right), US$, 2017
Figure 4.11: OTT versus mobile network in Senegal, 2017
Figure 4.12: OTT in Cambodia and Africa
Figure 4.13: Facebook Free Basics and m.wikipedia, June 2017
Figure 4.14: Impact of competition on mobile broadband prices and bundles
Figure 4.15: 2017 Affordability Drivers Index (ADI)
Figure 5.1: Barriers to Internet use in Malawi (left) and Zambia (right)
Figure 5.2: Internet use and level of education in Bangladesh (left) and Malawi (right)
Figure 5.3: Internet use, ages 15-24 for men and women in Lao PDR (left), and in selected economies (right)
Figure 5.4: Relation between education indicators and Internet use, LDCs
Figure 5.5: Secondary Gross Enrolment Ratio
Figure 5.6: Rwanda Internet supply and demand (left) and proportion of population that is digitally literate and projected to be computer literate (right)
Figure 6.1: Projections for mobile 3G coverage, mobile broadband prices, secondary school enrolment and Internet use, LDCs
Figure 6.2: The three drivers of Internet use
Figure 6.3: The three dimensions of Internet use
Figure 6.4: Leap-frogging
Box 1-1: ICTs and the SDGs – Target 9.c recognizes the importance of the Internet for the LDCs
Box 1-2: The least developed countries and the ICT Development Index
Box 2-1: Competition, privatization and strong operators in Mali
Box 2-2: Timor-Leste: Three is better than one
Box 2-3: PPPs for 4G in Rwanda
Box 2-4: Comparing fixed- to mobile-broadband networks
Box 2-5: National backbone development in Senegal
Box.2-6: Tanzania's ICT Broadband Backbone for National and Regional Connectivity
Box 2-7: Burundi Backbone System (BBS)
Box 2-8: The six sea-facing LDCs without submarine connectivity
Box 2-9: Winning formulas for fixed- and mobile-broadband markets
Box 3-1: The economics of free hosting
Box 3-2: Development of a Cloud Computing Strategy in Ethiopia
Box 3-3: From a development project to a growing IXP: Bangladesh Internet Exchange
Box 3-4: Help for the formation of technical Internet skills: The case of Myanmar
Box 4-1: Cellphones in Cambodia: Smartphones, electricity and Khmer
Box 4-2: Number of hours of work to pay for a mobile Internet bundle
Box 4-3: Redefining affordability and setting a new target: "1 for 2" to achieve SDG Target 9.c
Box 4-4: Taking on OTT in Bangladesh
Box 4-5: Hijacking zero-rated services in Angola
Box 4-6: Ticking all the right regulatory boxes but still relatively high prices: The case of Uganda
Box 4-7: Gauging polices affecting Internet affordability in Mozambique
Box 4-8: Mobile affordability in Haiti
Box 5-1: Use of universal service funds for school connectivity in Uganda
Box 5-2: With smartphones does local content become more important than digital literacy?