The meetings of the ITU Expert Group on Telecommunication /ICT Indicators (EGTI) and Expert Group on ICT Household Indicators (EGH) took place in Geneva, Switzerland, on 12-13 September and 14-15 September respectively.
Nearly 100 statistical experts from ICT ministries, national statistical offices, telecommunication regulators, and international organizations from 48 countries attended the meetings.
"In order to unlock the potential of ICTs for development, reliable and up-to date data are needed to inform policy-makers and guide investment to where it is most needed. Ours is a fast changing sector and indicators have to be constantly updated to reflect the actual ICT trends," said Mr Brahima Sanou.
Participants at the Expert Group on Telecommunication/ICT indicators discussed how data from ICT service providers could be used to inform policy-makers and regulators and help monitor and drive ICT development. The meeting agreed on a revision of the price baskets used to monitor the affordability of ICT services. This revision is motivated by the increase in data consumption patterns and the rising popularity of mobile packages and bundles. The group developed new fixed-network coverage indicators in order to track the deployment of next generation access networks, which are expected to be a building block of future ICT development.
The Expert Group on ICT Household Indicators discussed how to better track access and use of ICTs by households and individuals. The Expert Group decided to include new indicators on e-commerce and smartphone adoption and to intensify the work on improving the measurement of ICT skills through household surveys.
The outcomes of the Expert Group meetings will be presented to the 15th World Telecommunication/ICT Indicators Symposium, which will take place in Hammamet, Tunisia from 14-16 November 2017.
The Expert Group on Telecommunication/ICT Indicators (EGTI) was created in May 2009 with the mandate to revise the list of ITU supply-side indicators (i.e. data collected from operators), as well as to discuss outstanding methodological issues and new indicators.
The Expert Group on ICT Household Indicators (EGH) was established in May 2012 to review the statistical indicators for measuring ICT access and use by households and individuals.
For more details see:
Expert Group on ICT Household Indicators (EGH)
Expert Group on Telecommunication/ICT Indicators (EGTI)
