Digital divide between rich and poor looks smaller than expected: ITU

GENEVA (AFP) Dec 04, 2003
The digital divide between rich and poor countries may not be as bad as thought, the International Telecommunication Unionsaid in a report released Thursday, just days before some 65 heads of government convene in Geneva December 10-12 for a global summit to address the problem.

In addition, several targets in a plan of action that governments from some 169 countries are expected to endorse at the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) -- such as ensuring everyone has access to television and radio services by 2015 -- have already been achieved, according to the annual study.

The 189 member ITU, a United Nations agency, is the organiser of the summmit.

Official ITU statistics show that the 16 percent of the world's population who live in the richest countries account for 70 percent of all Internet users.

In contrast, the 40 percent who live in the poorest nations comprise only five percent of web surfers -- illustrating the so-called digital divide.

However, the 2003 ITU World Telecommunication Development Report said those figures may not tell the whole story.

It ponted out that rich countries conduct the majority of surveys on the number of Internet users, while there is no official tally carried out by nations classed as low income.

"What does that mean? It means that we have been guessing how many Internet users there are in a lot of developing countries," said Michael Minges, an ITU specialist and one of the authors of the report.

"When governments do carry out surveys the results are pretty startling," he told a news conference in Geneva.

The rate of Internet users in Mexico had been estimated at just 4.6 percent, but a government survey last year put the real ratio at 9.8 percent.

The mark-up for Jamaica following an official study was even more startling, from five percent to a real tally of 23 percent, the report said.

And wealthy countries in the European Union, which often churn out large numbers of charts on Internet use, have been over-estimating penetration rates.

An official survey by national statistics agencies in EU countries showed that Internet penetration was on average 13 percent less than the EU had been saying, said Minges.

"Is the digital divide as big as we think it is? From the results we have in, no," the specialist said.

"In Europe there is actually less (penetration) but in developing countries it looks like there are a lot more users out there," he continued.

This could have "big ramifications for next week's meetings. Everyone is talking about the digital divide but we are finding that maybe it isn't that big," Minges said.

Some 10,000 people are expected to attend the three-day summit, which will be followed by a second meeting in Tunisia in 2005.

SPACE.WIRE