Published by the World Bank, this 328-page report addresses the critical role being played by information and communication technology (ICT) in advancing economic growth and reducing poverty. It provides a global overview of ICT trends and policies in developing countries, covering issues such as financing infrastructure, the importance of public-private partnerships and effective competition to extending access, using ICT in doing business, and formulating national e-strategies.

The ICT At-a-Glance tables for 144 economies worldwide show the recent national data on key indicators of ICT development. The data enable assessment and comparison both over time and across economies to assess ICT capacity, performance, progress, and opportunities. For example:

Telephones:

• Between 1980 and 2005, the number of telephone subscribers in developing countries rose by over 30 times. In 1980, developing countries accounted for only 20% of the world's telephone lines. In 2005, 60% of the world's phones were in developing countries. Such expansion has been driven by the technological revolution of mobile telephony as well as private competition.
• There are now more mobile than fixed phones, and about 70% of the developing world's population - over 50% in Sub-Saharan Africa - live within the footprint of mobile phone services.
• Five years ago in Nigeria, there were 370,000 people with mobile phones. Just 4 years later, mobile phone users in the country topped 16.8 million - making the Nigerian mobile phone market the second largest in Africa.
• In the Philippines, there are now more mobile phone subscribers than fixed telephone subscribers. By the end of 2005, the Philippines had about 40 million mobile phone subscribers - six times more than in 2000.
• By 2005, half the world's households had telephones. Among developing regions, the telephone subscription rate was then highest in Eastern Europe and Central Asia - where it more than doubled from 2000 to 2004. But growth was highest in Sub-Saharan Africa - with the telephone subscription rate tripling - albeit to a still-low 103 subscribers per 1,000 people.

Internet:

• Worldwide, internet use quadrupled between 2000 and 2005. But "while developed nations have more than 300 secure internet servers per one million people, developing nations have fewer than two. Canada has more secure servers than all the developing countries combined."
• Eastern Europe and Central Asia are in the lead among developing regions, with 117 internet users per 1,000 people (6-8 times as many as in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa).
• Developing countries still have far to go to make access to ICT commonplace in governments, schools, and businesses. For example, while most developed nations have connected nearly all of their primary and secondary schools to the internet, only 38% of developing countries have done so. For Africa, the figure is less than 1%.

According to Mohsen Khalil, Director of the World Bank Group's Global ICT Department, the report shows that the mobile telephone revolution has been a key driver behind increased access to ICT in developing countries. "Developing countries have witnessed a remarkable progress in terms of connectivity over the past 10 years", Khalil says. "In 1990, developing countries had only 20 percent of the total telephone lines in the world. Today they have 60 percent. And more interesting is that the growth is still in the developing countries and this is mostly due to the mobile telephony revolution." The report also makes the point that with prepaid services and calling cards, even economically poor households benefit from increased telephone access.

The report urges developing countries to work in partnership with the private sector to extend the reach and use of ICT, particularly advanced ICT such as secure internet servers (a proxy for the availability of e-commerce). Further, there is a need to break down existing monopolies in developing countries in order to ensure that services can be provided at an affordable cost: "The existence of monopolies still in about half of the developing countries, particularly over long distance and international communications - which have determined the course of internet service - is the main obstacle today for the dissemination of information services," Khalil says.

Click here to download the full report, free of charge. A hard copy of the report may be purchased for US$40; click here for ordering information (geographic discounts are applicable).

"Connecting Developing Countries", forwarded to the Global Knowledge for Development (GKD) listserv on March 20 2006 (click here for the archives); World Bank website, and emails from Henny Rahardja to The Communication Initiative on April 24 2006 and September 21 2006.