Page 23 - Measuring digital development The affordability of ICT services 2024

The affordability of ICT services

Significant affordability gaps remain between 2019 to 122 in 2024, but there was no increase
countries for this basket, primarily driven by in low-income economies (Figure 13).
income levels. The entry-level fixed-broadband
basket cost just 1 per cent of monthly income Figure 13: Share of countries in which the
in high-income economies, but as much as reference fixed-broadband plan is based
29.3 per cent in low-income economies. on optical fibre or HFC cable technology

100
In the poorest countries, fixed broadband
remains largely inaccessible, limited to affluent 92
households and to businesses. Its lack of
affordability perpetuates a vicious cycle of high 75
72
prices and low demand. In 2024, for instance, 68
65
there were only 0.5 subscriptions per 100 63
50
inhabitants in low-income countries. The Africa
region reported just two subscriptions per 100 46 46
inhabitants. 35 35
7
25 29
While the affordability of fixed broadband
has improved only gradually, the quality of
connections has progressed significantly. The 0
World Low Lower Upper High
deployment of new technologies has enabled income middle middle income
faster speeds and more data traffic. ITU has income income
estimated that global fixed-broadband traffic 2019 2024
increased from around 140 GB per subscription
per month in 2019 to 310 GB in 2024. The Note: Shares (in percentages) compared to the
8
metadata collected for the fixed-broadband respective group of the 169 economies for which
basket provide additional evidence for the information on connection technology is available for
both years�
improvement of connection quality, reflected Source: ITU
in connection technology and speeds. The
9
number of economies using optical fibre or
hybrid fibre-coaxial (HFC) technology for
entry-level connections increased from 78 in

7 For fixed-broadband penetration, see ITU (2024),
Measuring digital development: Facts and Figures
2024.
8 For traffic data, see ITU (2024), Measuring digital
development: Facts and Figures 2024.
9 It is useful to recall that the data collection rule
for the fixed-broadband basket is referred to as
entry-level because of the low thresholds defined:
the cheapest plan including at least 5 GB data a
month and with a connection speed of at least 256
kbit/s. While in theory, this would not require ADSL,
cable or fiber-optic connections providing high
speeds, as markets and technologies matured, the
cheapest available plans actually by far “overshoot”
the minimum requirements.

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