ITU Data Hackathon: Bridging the Digital Divide by Uncovering Digital Deserts
Launched in 22 September 2025 during the World Telecommunication/ICT Indicators Symposium (WTIS-25), the Data Hackathon “Bridging the Digital Divide by Uncovering Digital Deserts” mobilized creativity and data analysis to identify connectivity gaps and subpopulations left behind in the process of achieving universal and meaningful connectivity (UMC). Over the course of one year, the Hackathon progressed through registration, online capacity-building activities, the shortlisting of candidates, project development, and the final evaluation phase that led to the identification of the winning teams.
Organized by the ITU Telecommunication Development Bureau (BDT), and co-financed by the European Union, this initiative is part of the project “Promoting and Measuring Universal and Meaningful Connectivity”.
Winning teams
A total of 104 applications were received, of which 21 were shortlisted to present their projects.
Following a detailed evaluation of the innovative quality of their solutions, technical excellence, and the potential impact of their proposed interventions, three teams were selected as finalists. They will be invited to present their work in person at the World Telecommunication/ICT Indicators Symposium 2026 (WTIS-26) in Geneva, Switzerland.
QBits (India)
- Apoorv Adarsh (Team Leader), Student, B.Tech in Electronics and Communication Engineering (ECE), Jaypee Institute of Information Technology
- Aditya Jain, Student, B.Tech in Electronics and Communication Engineering (ECE), Jaypee Institute of Information Technology
- Tarun Bansal, Student, B.Tech in Computer Science Engineering (CSE), Jaypee Institute of Information Technology
NextPlease (State of Palestine)
- Mohammed Mahmoud Jebreen Tomaizeh (Team Leader), Graduate, Computer Science, Birzeit University
- Yazeed Alhaddad, Student, Computer Engineering, Birzeit University
- Andrew Nabil Lwiz Odeh, Student, Computer Science student, Birzeit University
FortiData (Cambodia)
- Raksa Kun (Team Leader), Data Analyst, Cambodia Tourism Board
- Kimhong Set, Research and Skills Intelligence Analyst, Skills Development Fund
- Taing Molika, Business Quality Assurance Specialist, Advanced Bank of Asia Limited
- Soklieng Phat, Digital Data Scientist, Advanced Bank of Asia Limited
Learn more about the winning solutions below:
Team QBits — The Connectivity Mirage
Project Summary
Team QBits’ project, The Connectivity Mirage, addresses a flaw in how mobile network coverage is reported across urban India. Official maps mark regions as “connected” the moment any signal is detected, but that signal is rarely usable. To expose this gap, the team conducted a 27-cell hardware walk-test on the JIIT Noida campus and processed over 6.5 million Ookla performance records across over 700 Indian districts, building the Hybrid Digital Degradation Index (HDDI), a composite score that measures connectivity from the user’s perspective, incorporating indoor signal quality, peak-hour congestion, and real application suitability for education, health, and work. The result is a live, open-source platform that turns raw measurement data into a crowd-sourceable, policy-actionable map of India’s Hidden Digital Deserts.
Key impact
Where official sources indicate 85–100% strong coverage across Delhi National Capital Region, the team’s ground-truth measurements found only 51.8% of cells actually deliver strong signal, with 22% functionally dead during peak academic hours. Students in these dead zones spend up to 6.7% of household income on compensatory data, more than triple ITU’s 2% affordability threshold. The HDDI framework offers a near-zero-cost path to accountability, enabling regulators, NGOs, and engineering colleges to verify indoor connectivity at scale and build India’s first national database of verified network quality.
Team NextPlease — Identifying Digital Deserts
Project Summary
Identifying Digital Deserts is a data-driven project that applies ITU’s Universal and Meaningful Connectivity framework to the 19 UNRWA-registered refugee camps in the West Bank. The project goes beyond traditional network coverage measurements by examining six dimensions of connectivity: universality, performance, affordability, device ownership, digital skills, and safety and trust. Using multiple public data sources together with primary field research, the team developed a Digital Desert Index (DDI) that identifies and ranks camp-level connectivity inequalities that may be hidden within national or governorate-level averages. The methodology also classifies camps according to their main connectivity barriers and connects each camp type with practical and feasible policy interventions.
Key impact
The project’s key finding is that network coverage alone does not guarantee meaningful connectivity. Many refugee camps may have an available signal while residents still face serious barriers related to affordability, internet quality, access to devices, digital skills, and online trust. The Digital Desert Index (DDI) provides decision-makers with a practical targeting and monitoring tool to identify the most underserved communities, select interventions according to each camp’s actual needs, and measure progress over time rather than focusing only on infrastructure expansion.
Team FortiData — Cambodia Digital Desert Index (DDI)
Project Summary
Team FortiData built the Cambodia Digital Desert Index (DDI) to uncover the digital divide hidden beneath national connectivity figures. The validated, province-level framework looks beyond simple connectivity to ask whether people can actually use it. Covering six dimensions availability, affordability, skills, devices, usage, and safety the DDI identifies Cambodia’s digital deserts, diagnoses what’s driving exclusion in each one, and turns those findings into targeted policy recommendations.
Key impact
The Cambodia Digital Desert Index provides an evidence-based tool to reveal hidden digital inequalities across Cambodia. By ranking all 25 provinces and classifying nine of them as high-exclusion “digital deserts,” the index allows government and development partners to target connectivity, affordability, and digital-skills investments where they are needed most, rather than relying on national averages that hide these gaps.
In addition to the winning teams, seven projects were recognized for their originality and for the value of the solutions they propose:
Disclaimer
The presentations linked on this page were prepared by the participating teams of the Universal and Meaningful Connectivity (UMC) Data Desert Hackathon. The views, findings, analyses, recommendations, and conclusions expressed in those presentations are solely those of the respective teams and do not reflect the views or positions of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), its Secretariat, or its Membership.
These presentations showcase the work and ideas independently developed by the winning teams. These links do not constitute an endorsement by ITU or its members of any methodology, analysis, recommendation, product, service, or opinion contained therein, nor concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. These presentations are linked without warranty of any kind.
For the timeline and additional information, please refer to the archived sections below.
Objectives
Through data processing, visualization and storytelling, teams were requested to:
- Identify geographical areas with limited connectivity, offering to policymakers a typology of such areas that can help planning more targeted policies;
- Profile the subpopulations that do not benefit of a meaningful connectivity due to lack of infrastructure, poor service quality, limited affordability of devices and ICT services, low skills or other barriers;
- Explore innovative statistical methodologies by combining existing data and geospatial sources, identifying additional sources and indicators, using advanced inference methods
Who participated
Teams of worldwide university students and young professionals (age limit 30 years) with strong interest in data visualization, statistics, or digital inclusion. Disciplines encouraged included:
- Statistics and data science
- Economics
- Social studies
- Informatics
- Graphic design
- Journalism
- Public policy
Data & tools
Participants accessed different datasets such as:
- Country-level data
- ICT infrastructure availability (e.g., cell towers, fiber optic cables)
- User-generated content (e.g., speed measurements)
- Connectivity metrics (e.g., broadband speeds, mobile network coverage, quality of service reports)
- Demographic and socioeconomic data (income levels, education)
- Aggregate and anonymized data from household surveys
- Geospatial data layers (satellite imagery, topographic maps)
Participants were free to choose their preferred software.
Mentorship & jury
- Mentorship and jury were provided by ITU staff and external experts.
- Meet our mentors: Shashank Agarwal, José L. Cervera-Ferri, Nehal Desai, Fredrik Eriksson, Esperanza Magpantay, Nathan Menton, Amarnath Ojha, Sébastien Preytignet, Akanksha Sharma, and Viviana Umpierrez.—Read their bios here.
Awards & recognition
- Certificates: All participants received ITU certificates of participation.
- Visibility: Winning contributions were disseminated through ITU communication channels.
- Presentations: The winning teams will present their work at WTIS-26.
Challenge timeline
- 22 September 2025 — First announcement at WTIS-25 (Geneva, Switzerland).
- 15 October – 31 December 2025 — Registration
- 5 January 2026 – 31 March 2026 — Online phase: Registered participants took part in online workshops covering the concept of universal and meaningful connectivity and its measurement, data sources, good practices in data visualization, and mentorship sessions.
- 14 January 2026: 1st webinar for participants (Presentation by Mr José L. Cervera-Ferri (ITU) | Presentation by Ms Akanksha Sharma (ITU))
- 2 February 2026: 2nd webinar for participants (Presentation by Mr José L. Cervera-Ferri (ITU) | Presentation by Ms Esperanza Magpantay & Mr Fredrik Eriksson (ITU))
- 17-19 June 2026 — Online presentations by the pre-selected teams.
- 8 September 2026 — Presentation of the winning teams’ projects at WTIS-26 (Geneva, Switzerland).
