Download or read book Determinants of a Digital Divide in Sub Saharan Africa written by Piet Buys and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2008 with total page 26 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Most discussions of the digital divide treat it as a "North-South" issue, but the conventional dichotomy doesn't apply to cell phones in Sub-Saharan Africa. Although almost all Sub-Saharan countries are poor by international standards, they exhibit great disparities in coverage by cell telephone systems. Buys, Dasgupta, Thomas and Wheeler investigate the determinants of these disparities with a spatially-disaggregated model that employs locational information for cell-phone towers across over 990,000 4.6-km grid squares in Sub-Saharan Africa. Using probit techniques, a probability model with adjustments for spatial autocorrelation has been estimated that relates the likelihood of cell-tower location within a grid square to potential market size (proximate population); installation and maintenance cost factors related to accessibility (elevation, slope, distance from a main road, distance from the nearest large city); and national competition policy. Probit estimates indicate strong, significant results for the supply-demand variables, and very strong results for the competition policy index. Simulations based on the econometric results suggest that a generalized improvement in competition policy to a level that currently characterizes the best-performing states in Sub-Saharan Africa could lead to huge improvements in cell-phone area coverage for many states currently with poor policy performance, and an overall coverage increase of nearly 100 percent.
Download or read book Determinants of a Digital Divide in Sub Saharan Africa written by Piet Buys and published by . This book was released on 2008 with total page 24 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Abstract: Most discussions of the digital divide treat it as a "North-South" issue, but the conventional dichotomy doesn't apply to cell phones in Sub-Saharan Africa. Although almost all Sub-Saharan countries are poor by international standards, they exhibit great disparities in coverage by cell telephone systems. Buys, Dasgupta, Thomas and Wheeler investigate the determinants of these disparities with a spatially-disaggregated model that employs locational information for cell-phone towers across over 990,000 4.6-km grid squares in Sub-Saharan Africa. Using probit techniques, a probability model with adjustments for spatial autocorrelation has been estimated that relates the likelihood of cell-tower location within a grid square to potential market size (proximate population); installation and maintenance cost factors related to accessibility (elevation, slope, distance from a main road, distance from the nearest large city); and national competition policy. Probit estimates indicate strong, significant results for the supply-demand variables, and very strong results for the competition policy index. Simulations based on the econometric results suggest that a generalized improvement in competition policy to a level that currently characterizes the best-performing states in Sub-Saharan Africa could lead to huge improvements in cell-phone area coverage for many states currently with poor policy performance, and an overall coverage increase of nearly 100 percent.
Download or read book Determinants of a Digital Divide in Sub Saharan Africa written by Piet Buys and published by . This book was released on 2012 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Most discussions of the digital divide treat it as a "North-South" issue, but the conventional dichotomy doesn't apply to cell phones in Sub-Saharan Africa. Although almost all Sub-Saharan countries are poor by international standards, they exhibit great disparities in coverage by cell telephone systems. Buys, Dasgupta, Thomas and Wheeler investigate the determinants of these disparities with a spatially-disaggregated model that employs locational information for cell-phone towers across over 990,000 4.6-km grid squares in Sub-Saharan Africa. Using probit techniques, a probability model with adjustments for spatial autocorrelation has been estimated that relates the likelihood of cell-tower location within a grid square to potential market size (proximate population); installation and maintenance cost factors related to accessibility (elevation, slope, distance from a main road, distance from the nearest large city); and national competition policy. Probit estimates indicate strong, significant results for the supply-demand variables, and very strong results for the competition policy index. Simulations based on the econometric results suggest that a generalized improvement in competition policy to a level that currently characterizes the best-performing states in Sub-Saharan Africa could lead to huge improvements in cell-phone area coverage for many states currently with poor policy performance, and an overall coverage increase of nearly 100 percent.
Download or read book Digital Connectivity in sub Saharan Africa A Comparative Perspective written by Mr.Emre Alper and published by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 2019-09-27 with total page 44 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Higher digital connectivity is expected to bring opportunities to leapfrog development in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Experience within the region demonstrates that if there is an adequate digital infrastructure and a supportive business environment, new forms of business spring up and create jobs for the educated as well as the less educated. The paper first confirms the global digital divide through the unsupervised machine learning clustering K-means algorithm. Next, it derives a composite digital connectivity index, in the spirit of De Muro-Mazziotta-Pareto, for about 190 economies. Descriptive analysis shows that majority of SSA countries lag in digital connectivity, specifically in infrastructure, internet usage, and knowledge. Finally, using fractional logit regressions we document that better business enabling and regulatory environment, financial access, and urbanization are associated with higher digital connectivity.
Download or read book Bridging the Mobile Digital Divide in Sub Saharan Africa Costing under Demographic Change and Urbanization written by Mr.Emre Alper and published by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 2019-11-15 with total page 40 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Digital connectivity, including through the modern cellular network technologies, is expected to play a key role for the Future of Work in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). We estimate the cost of introducing a full-scale 4G network by 2025 in SSA and an operable 5G network by 2040. We adapt the costing model of Lombardo (2019) by accounting for the significant demographic transformation and rapid urbanization in SSA. We use the WorldPop and GADM databases and the UN’s medium-variant population projections to project the population densities at the highest level of administrative division for each SSA country in 2025 and 2040. For full 4G connectivity, the required capital and operational costs stands approximately at US$14 billion by 2025 and for 5G connectivity, costs amount to US$57 billion in 2040, conditional on having the 4G in place by 2025. These costs roughly translate to 8.4 percent of annual subscriber income, on a median basis, by 2025 for 4G and 4.9 percent of subscriber income by 2040 for 5G. Having the infrastructure in place is not sufficient to bridge the mobile Digital Divide. In addition, policies are needed to address affordability and knowledge gaps.
Download or read book The Determinants of the Global Digital Divide written by Menzie David Chinn and published by . This book was released on 2004 with total page 44 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "To identify the determinants of cross-country disparities in personal computer and Internet penetration, we examine a panel of 161 countries over the 1999-2001 period. Our candidate variables include economic variables (income per capita, years of schooling, illiteracy, trade openness), demographic variables (youth and aged dependency ratios, urbanization rate), infrastructure indicators (telephone density, electricity consumption), telecommunications pricing measures, and regulatory quality. With the exception of trade openness and the telecom pricing measures, these variables enter in as statistically significant in most specifications for computer use. A similar pattern holds true for Internet use, except that telephone density and aged dependency matter less. The global digital divide is mainly but by no means entirely accounted for by income differentials. For computers, telephone density and regulatory quality are of second and third importance, while for the Internet, this ordering is reversed. The region-specific explanations for large disparities in computer and Internet penetration are generally very similar. Our results suggest that public investment in human capital, telecommunications infrastructure, and the regulatory infrastructure can mitigate the gap in PC and Internet use"--NBER website
Download or read book Mapping the Digital Divide in Africa written by Bruce Mutsvairo and published by Amsterdam University Press. This book was released on 2019-05-09 with total page 279 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Despite issues associated with the digital divide, mobile telephony is growing on the continent and the rise of smartphones has given citizens easy access to social networking sites. But the digital divide, which mostly reflects on one's race, gender, socioeconomic status or geographical location, stands in the way of digital progress. What opportunities are available to tame digital disparities? How are different societies in Africa handling digital problems? What innovative methods are being used to provide citizens with access to critical information that can help improve their lives? Experiences from various locations in several sub-Saharan African countries have been carefully selected in this collection with the aim of providing an updated account on the digital divide and its impact in Africa.
Download or read book Bridging the Mobile Digital Divide in Sub Saharan Africa Costing under Demographic Change and Urbanization written by Mr.Emre Alper and published by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 2019-11-15 with total page 40 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Digital connectivity, including through the modern cellular network technologies, is expected to play a key role for the Future of Work in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). We estimate the cost of introducing a full-scale 4G network by 2025 in SSA and an operable 5G network by 2040. We adapt the costing model of Lombardo (2019) by accounting for the significant demographic transformation and rapid urbanization in SSA. We use the WorldPop and GADM databases and the UN’s medium-variant population projections to project the population densities at the highest level of administrative division for each SSA country in 2025 and 2040. For full 4G connectivity, the required capital and operational costs stands approximately at US$14 billion by 2025 and for 5G connectivity, costs amount to US$57 billion in 2040, conditional on having the 4G in place by 2025. These costs roughly translate to 8.4 percent of annual subscriber income, on a median basis, by 2025 for 4G and 4.9 percent of subscriber income by 2040 for 5G. Having the infrastructure in place is not sufficient to bridge the mobile Digital Divide. In addition, policies are needed to address affordability and knowledge gaps.
Download or read book The Digital Divide written by Massimo Ragnedda and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-06-19 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book provides an in-depth comparative analysis of inequality and the stratification of the digital sphere. Grounded in classical sociological theories of inequality, as well as empirical evidence, this book defines ‘the digital divide’ as the unequal access and utility of internet communications technologies and explores how it has the potential to replicate existing social inequalities, as well as create new forms of stratification. The Digital Divide examines how various demographic and socio-economic factors including income, education, age and gender, as well as infrastructure, products and services affect how the internet is used and accessed. Comprised of six parts, the first section examines theories of the digital divide, and then looks in turn at: Highly developed nations and regions (including the USA, the EU and Japan); Emerging large powers (Brazil, China, India, Russia); Eastern European countries (Estonia, Romania, Serbia); Arab and Middle Eastern nations (Egypt, Iran, Israel); Under-studied areas (East and Central Asia, Latin America, and sub-Saharan Africa). Providing an interwoven analysis of the international inequalities in internet usage and access, this important work offers a comprehensive approach to studying the digital divide around the globe. It is an important resource for academic and students in sociology, social policy, communication studies, media studies and all those interested in the questions and issues around social inequality.
Download or read book Digital Inequalities in the Global South written by Massimo Ragnedda and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2020-06-29 with total page 378 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book discusses how digital inequalities today may lead to other types of inequalities in the Global South. Contributions to this collection move past discussing an access problem – a binary division between ‘haves and have-nots’ – to analyse complex inequalities in the internet use, benefits, and opportunities of people in the Global South region. Using specific case studies, this book underlines how communities in the Global South are now attempting to participate in the information age despite high costs, a lack of infrastructure, and more barriers to entry. Contributions discuss the recent changes in the Global South. These changes include greater technological availability, the spread of digital literacy programs and computer courses, and the overall growth in engagement of people from different backgrounds, ethnicities, and languages in digital environments. This book outlines and evaluates the role of state and public institutions in facilitating these changes and consequently bridging the digital divide.
Download or read book Digital Poverty written by Hernan Galperin and published by IDRC. This book was released on 2007 with total page 162 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Examines the problem of inedequate access to information and communication technology (ICT) and the need to develop appropriate pro-poor ICT policies. Shows how market reforms have failed to ensure that the benefits of the Information Society have spread across the region.
Download or read book The Digital Divide in Africa written by Emlyn Hagen and published by VDM Publishing. This book was released on 2007 with total page 110 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Half of the world's population has never made or received a phone call and perhaps the same half lives on less than $2 a day. If this is not just a statistical coincidence, is there causality between the lack of telecommunication and poverty? The digital divide is the discrepancy between Africa and other nations in the usage of ICT's, such as telephony and the internet. The goal of this book, is to highlight "which factors influence a nation's capacity to bridge the Digital Divide." It will give an elaborate introduction to the Digital Divide and the concepts Information Society and Information Revolution. And the book will answer the question why some African countries have more ICT's than others, even though they are not necessarily richer. The author, Emlyn Hagen, researches a range of cultural, economic, political and geographical factors by means of an econometrical analysis. The data spans all 54 independent African countries, over a 12-year period, and contains information about a wide array of factors such a GDP per capita, the amount of telephone lines, language, the level of freedom and foreign investments. The study reflects that foreign ICT investors will venture even into the poorest and difficult accessible nations if the political climate and regulatory climate allows it. This book will give social and economic scientists an introduction to the African telecom situation, and will provide telecom industry and policy decision makers with a better insight in solving the digital divide.
Download or read book Globalization and the Digital Divide written by and published by Cambria Press. This book was released on with total page 209 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Gender Internet Use and Covid 19 in the Global South written by Jeffrey James and published by . This book was released on 2022 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book analyzes the use of the mobile Internet against the background of gender bias and Covid-19, currently two of the most important and pressing problems of the Global South. The book argues that the degree of benefits from this new technology depends heavily on the way it is actually used and that most new technologies are developed for the conditions prevailing in rich countries, where they tend to be quite easily adopted and used. In the Global South, by contrast, a paucity of digital skills and other factors make the potentially valuable benefits from the Internet much more difficult to derive. Using empirical data recently provided by the Groupe Speciale Mobile Association (GSMA), the book examines the existence and extent of the digital divide between males and females in mobile Internet use, which constitutes a new form of divide. It sheds light on the acute difficulty for first-time mobile Internet users in the Global South, and especially Sub-Saharan Africa, to learn the digital skills that are needed to use the said technology effectively, with a special focus on how these users acquire the required knowledge, without having undergone the process of learning by doing. The book further discusses the determinants of digital skills in the Global South, as well as major factors underlying the extent to which different users actually benefit from the mobile Internet, such as gender, location, age, and education. Finally, it investigates how womens' use of the Internet has been altered by the pandemic in the Global South. This book will appeal to students, researchers, and scholars of development economics and development studies, as well as policy-makers interested in a better understanding of the impact of gender bias and Covid-19 on mobile internet use in the Global South.
Download or read book ICTs and Sustainable Solutions for the Digital Divide Theory and Perspectives written by Steyn, Jacques and published by IGI Global. This book was released on 2010-09-30 with total page 392 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: ICTs and Sustainable Solutions for the Digital Divide: Theory and Perspectives focuses on Information and Communication Technologies for Development (ICT4D), which includes any technology used for communication and information. This publication researches the social side of computing, the users, and the design of systems that meet the needs of "ordinary" users.
Download or read book Race in Cyberspace written by Beth Kolko and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-08-21 with total page 263 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Groundbreaking and timely, Race in Cyberspace brings to light the important yet vastly overlooked intersection of race and cyberspace.
Download or read book BRIDGING THE MOBILE DIGITAL DIVIDE IN SUB SAHARAN AFRICA written by C. Emre Alper and published by . This book was released on 2019 with total page 41 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
