The State of Broadband:

Digital connectivity
A transformative opportunity
September 2023
 The State of
Broadband 2023
Digital Connectivity
A Transformative Opportunity

ITU/UNESCO Broadband Commission

for Sustainable Development
September 2023

The Report was developed with the support of

Knowledge Partner: Access Partnership

© International Telecommunication Union and United Nations Educational,

Scientific and Cultural Organization, 2023
 The State of Broadband 2023 iii

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iv The State of Broadband 2023

Acknowledgements
This report has been written collaboratively, drawing on insights and contributions from Com-
missioners and their organizations. As such, the views expressed here are not attributed to any
one organization or individual, except in the Insights - Impact Stories contributed by respective
Commissioners. The Commissioner Insights - Impact Stories reflect the views of their authors
alone and do not reflect the views of the Broadband Commission.

The report has been written by Lim May-Ann, Director of the Fair Tech Institute at Access
Partnership, with inputs from Dr. Peter Lovelock, Head of Fair Tech Policy at Access Partnership,
a Knowledge Partner. From the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), Nur Sulyna
Abdullah, Phillippa Biggs and Anna Polomska-Risler provided direction, guidance and inputs;
Leah Mann provided review and Julia Gorlovetskaya designed the report.

The Commission contributors and reviewers listed in alphabetical order of their organization:

• African Union Commission (Commissioner H.E. Dr. Amani Abou-Zeid)

• America Movil (Commissioner Dr. Carlos M. Jarque)
• Communications, Space & Technology Commission (CST), Saudi Arabia (Commissioner
H.E. Dr. Mohammed Saud Al-Tamimi)
• Digicel (Commissioner Mr. Denis O’Brien)
• Ericsson (Commissioner Mr. Erik Ekudden)
• Eutelsat IGO (Commissioner Mr. Piotr Dmochowski-Lipski)
• FAO (Commissioner Dr. Qu Dongyu)
• GSMA (Commissioner Mr. Mats Granryd)
• Intelsat (Commissioner Mr. David Wajsgras)
• IFC (Commissioner Mr. Makhtar Diop)
• ITC (Commissioner Ms. Pamela Coke-Hamilton)
• Meta (Commissioner Mr. Kevin Martin)
• Millicom (Commissioner Mr. Mauricio Ramos)
• Nokia (Commissioner Mr. Pekka Lundmark)
• Novartis Foundation (Commissioner Dr. Ann Aerts)
• SAMENA Telecommunications Council (Commissioner Mr. Bocar Ba)
• Smart Africa (Commissioner Mr. Lacina Koné)
• Telecommunications and Digital Government Regulatory Authority (TDRA), UAE (Com-
missioner H.E. Engineer Majed Sultan Al Mesmar)
• UNDP (Commissioner Mr. Achim Steiner)
• UNESCO (Commission Co-Vice Chair Ms. Audrey Azoulay)
• Verizon Communications Inc. (Commissioner Mr. Hans Vestberg
 The State of Broadband 2023 v

Table of Contents
Acknowledgements.....................................................................................................................................................iv
Current Commissioners of the Broadband Commission for Sustainable Development.............iv
Executive Summary................................................................................................................................................... vii
Chapter 1 - The broadband landscape: new opportunities........................................................................1
Broadband Demand Driver 1: Consumers demanding faster, easier, safer digital services
and payments................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 4
Broadband Demand Driver 2: Citizens driving demand for government services, with governments
moving
towards delivering digital services pro-actively..................................................................................................................................... 5
Broadband demand driver 3: New entrepreneurs leading micro, small, and medium enterprises
(MSMEs) driving demand for demand for digital transformation and connectivity services............................... 7
Chapter 2: Mapping Connectivity Gaps – Broadband as Digital Foundation.................................... 8
Advocacy Target 1: Make broadband policy universal.................................................................................. 9
Target and rationale............................................................................................................................................................................................... 9
Status as of 2023, tracking progress.......................................................................................................................................................... 9
Transformative risks and opportunities.................................................................................................................................................10
Case Study on the Republic of Korea’s Universal service obligation (USO).............................................................. 14
Advocacy Target 2: Make broadband affordable........................................................................................... 15
Target and rationale............................................................................................................................................................................................. 15
Status as of 2023, tracking progress........................................................................................................................................................ 15
Transformative risks and opportunities.................................................................................................................................................16
Case Study: One million school locations mapped: UNICEF and ITU’s Giga initiative...................................... 17
Advocacy Target 3: Get everyone online............................................................................................................ 19
Target and rationale.............................................................................................................................................................................................19
Status as of 2023, tracking progress....................................................................................................................................................... 20
Advocacy Target 4: Promote digital skills development...........................................................................22
Target and rationale.............................................................................................................................................................................................22
Status as of 2023, tracking progress........................................................................................................................................................22
Transformative risks and opportunities.................................................................................................................................................23
Case Study – Designing new Frameworks for Digital Literacy, Skills and Readiness, by the
IEEE Standards Association, World Economic Forum, and others.................................................................................. 28
Case Study – Media and information literacy for sustainable digital transformation....................................... 28
Advocacy Target 5: Increase use of digital financial services.................................................................29
Target and rationale............................................................................................................................................................................................ 29
Status as of 2023, tracking progress....................................................................................................................................................... 29
Transformative risks and opportunities................................................................................................................................................ 30
Case Study – Novissi: Empowering the economically vulnerable in Togo................................................................ 31
Case Study – Brazil’s Pix.................................................................................................................................................................................... 31
Advocacy Target 6: Get MSMEs online................................................................................................................33
Target and rationale.............................................................................................................................................................................................33
Status as of 2023, tracking progress........................................................................................................................................................37
vi The State of Broadband 2023

Transformative risks and opportunities.................................................................................................................................................34

Case Study – Uganda’s Jumia and the UNDP: An e-commerce MSME supporting
other MSME informal vendors..................................................................................................................................................................... 36
Advocacy Target 7: Bridge the gender digital divide...................................................................................................... 37
Target and rationale.............................................................................................................................................................................................37
Status as of 2023, tracking progress........................................................................................................................................................37
Transformative risks and opportunities................................................................................................................................................ 38
Case Study – UNDP’s Mildet Chatbot helping women with family law issues....................................................... 39
Chapter 3: Conclusions.............................................................................................................................................40
Consideration 1: Defining (and re-defining) measurable goals for “universal meaningful
connectivity” to meet today’s needs............................................................................................................................................................. 41
Consideration 2: Close the Usage Gap by addressing key barriers to people adopting and
using the Internet where coverage is available....................................................................................................................................42
Consideration 3: Broaden contributor base and implement creative funding approaches,
including incentivising infrastructure funding, reforming Universal Service and Access
Funds (USAF) approaches....................................................................................................................................................................................42
Consideration 4: Alignment and incentivizing funding contributors is key for government
connectivity plans, mobilizing all sectors’ pools of capital by removing challenges and barriers
to network infrastructure investment...........................................................................................................................................................43
Consideration 5: Build network infrastructure policies to last with sustainable and agile plans....................43
Endnotes.........................................................................................................................................................................44
Annex: Measuring progress towards achieving the 2025 targets........................................................44

List of Figures
Figure 1: CAGR Internet Bandwidth Growth by Region............................................................................................................................2
Figure 2: GDP Growth impact of 10 per cent increase in mobile broadband penetration........................................... 3
Figure 3: Pakistan Asaan Mobile Account......................................................................................................................................................... 4
Figure 4: MTN Mobile Money Open APIs........................................................................................................................................................... 4
Figure 5: Singapore Government Tech Stack................................................................................................................................................. 5
Figure 6: Portal de Serviços Brasil on mobile.................................................................................................................................................6
Figure 7: India Aadhar Card ........................................................................................................................................................................................6
Figure 8: GoTo Business Units.................................................................................................................................................................................... 7
Figure 9: Jiji promotion..................................................................................................................................................................................................... 7
Figure 10: Changing policy focus for broadband and connectivity strategies....................................................................10
Figure 11: Asusu in Nigeria..........................................................................................................................................................................................35
Figure 12: Jumia’s E-Commerce Partnership Enabling MSMEs and the Informal Sector........................................... 36
 The State of Broadband 2023 vii

Executive Summary

The events of the last three years, with a glob-

We won’t rest until we live in
al health pandemic and the swift international
a world where meaningful
pivot to digital delivery of goods, services, work,
connectivity is a lived reality for
and play, have yielded unique insights into just
everyone, everywhere.”
how critical stable, broadband access is and will
continue to be. While the global markets still face This year’s ITU State of Broadband 2023 reviews
strong economic headwinds today, digital con- the progress of the seven Advocacy Targets,
nectivity has accelerated as people, businesses, and notes the wins that can be seen as we move
and governments pivoted strongly towards towards broadband being universally available,
online communications, and we continue to see equitable, and affordable. Yet despite the gains,
new internet devices and applications, growing market trends for consumption and supply
broadband penetration into developing markets. are shifting, and may not be strong enough to
guarantee that the objective of universal and
The Broadband Commission for Sustainable meaningful connectivity will be met by 2030. It
Development continues to see progress as we therefore looks at the cost of meeting Broadband
move towards universal and meaningful online Commission targets – what are the consid-
activity. It is heartening to note that the global erations for how the next lap of connectivity
offline population continues to steadily decline for digital transformation can and should be
to 2.6 billion people in 2023, a reduction from the financed and funded? It offers five considerations
estimated 2.7 billion people offline in 2022.1 for the road ahead, see below.

“This improvement in connectivity is another step The Broadband Commission for Sustainable De-
in the right direction, and one more step towards velopment welcomes stakeholders and partners
leaving no one behind in support of the UN to work on achieving universal and meaningful
Sustainable Development Goals,” said ITU Secre- connectivity by 2030, to ensure not just connec-
tary-General Doreen Bogdan-Martin.“ tivity, but also that those who are connected have
the skills and knowledge to use it.

Five considerations for the road ahead

Defining Close the Broaden Alignment and Build

(and Usage Gap contributor base incentivizing funding network
re-defining) by addressing and implement contributors is key infrastructure
measurable key barriers creative funding for government policies to
goals for to people approaches, connectivity plans, last with
“universal adopting and including mobilizing all sec- sustainable
meaningful using the incentivising tors’ pools of capital and agile
connectivity” Internet where infrastructure by removing chal- plans
to meet coverage is funding, lenges and barriers
today’s available reforming USAF to network infra-
needs approaches structure investment
1 The State of Broadband 2023

Chapter 1

The Broadband
Landscape
New Opportunities
The events of the last three years have yielded unique insights
into just how critical stable, broadband access is and will continue
to be. As a knock-on effect of the digital transformation and pivot
from the pandemic, new internet devices and applications, growing
broadband penetration into developing markets, there is a stronger
demand than ever for digital products and services.

Image source: Asian Development Bank

 The State of Broadband 2023 2

The events of the last three years, with a global In fact, there is a fundamental
health pandemic and the swift international shift from supply-driven
pivot to digital delivery of goods, services, work, communications access to
and play, have yielded unique insights into just demand-driven communication.
how critical stable, broadband access is - and
will continue to be. While the global markets Recent events have demonstrated that the
still face strong economic headwinds today, demand for connectivity is not only emerging
digital connectivity has accelerated2 as people, but also substantial and sustained, particularly
businesses, and governments pivoted strongly from the global South, where many remain
towards online communications. unconnected or under-connected. This trend
is expected to continue and potentially grow in
In this regard, the Broadband Commission for the coming years. For instance, the following
Sustainable Development continues to see figure shows that the compound annual growth
progress as the world moves towards universal rate (CAGR) for bandwidth transmission capacity
and meaningful activity. It is heartening to note continues to be driven by Africa, Asia and the
that the global offline population continues to Pacific.
steadily decline to 2.6 billion people in 2023, a
reduction from the estimated 2.7 billion people Taking stock of lessons learned during the
offline in 2022.3 This improvement is a knock-on pandemic, policymakers could consider the
effect of the digital transformation and pivot from positive economic impact of infrastructure
the pandemic, accelerating the development of investment while reviewing progress towards
new internet devices and applications, growing achieving universal broadband access. 4 By
broadband penetration into developing markets, recognizing the undergirding and cross-
resulting in stronger demand than ever for digital cutting enablement of communications for
products and services. everything from health and education through to
entertainment and transactions, the cost/return
equation would be transformed.

Source: Telegeography, 20215

3 The State of Broadband 2023

Source: ITU, 20216

Where previously the argument was –build it Where is the demand coming from? How
first, and the demand will come – it can now be are people using and adapting to these new
seen that the demand is here, and it is growing. releases of technology? Where are digital
This tipping point has been reached and there foundation investments looking to pay off
is now a new trajectory in the cost/return with strong virtuous cycles of innovation and
journey. entrepreneurship? And how much financing
and funding is needed to prepare for this
However, the economic returns are not future?
always fully recognized, let alone realized.

This year’s State of Broadband Report 2023 sees a transformative

opportunity for the world to capitalize on this strong shift towards digital
foundation building. This has occurred in several demand-driven ways:

Consumers demanding faster, easier, safer services anddigital pay-

ments

Citizens driving demand for government services, with governments

moving towards delivering digital services pro-actively

New entrepreneurs leading micro, small, and medium enterprises

(MSMEs) driving demand for demand for digital transformation and
connectivity services.
 The State of Broadband 2023 4

Broadband Consumers demanding faster, easier, safer digital

Demand Driver 1 services and payments

A big driver of today’s broadband demand is consumer-driven demand from easier, safer, and faster dig-
ital services and payments. With governments establishing stronger and more verifiable digital identity
systems, electronic Know-Your-Customer (eKYC) verification processes can be performed, with stronger
verifiable payment mechanisms in place. Stronger financial inclusion programmes7 can be provided to
micro-, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs), and to minority and/or disadvantaged groups,
such as rural communities, or female entrepreneurs, or in areas of conflict.

Asaan Mobile Account (AMA) platform

For example, Pakistan has launched the Asaan Mobile

Account (AMA) platform, a joint initiative by the State
Bank of Pakistan (SBP) and Pakistan Telecommunication
Authority (PTA), in collaboration with branchless banking
(BB) providers, telecom operators, and other development
partners. This platform offers eKYC services, enabling
citizens to quickly and affordably open digital accounts Figure 3: Pakistan Aasan Mobile Account
and access financial services with ease. Source: Daily Outcome Pakistan, 20228

MTN Mobile Money Open APIs

Another example is MTN Mobile Money Open

APIs which has helped to accelerate fintech
innovation in Africa. To accelerate the growth
of mobile financial services and to encourage
fintech innovation in Africa, MTN made its Mo-
bile Money platform available to third parties by
launching the Mobile Money Open API platform.
The MTN Mobile Money Open APIs provide
developers complimentary access to the MTN
Mobile Money proprietary software platform
and enable them to create innovative digital
Figure 4: MTN Mobile Money Open APIs financial services, meeting the growing financial
Source: Ericsson, 20239 needs of Africans.

Increased demand for strong and stable connectivity from consumers and businesses has also been
boosted by new technological improvements. For example, the use of national and cross-border Quick
Response (QR)-code payments has facilitated more convenient transactions. Additionally, businesses
have adopted solutions, like blockchain-enabled logistics, through platforms like tradetrust.io10, leading
to greener paperless shipping and handling of physical goods, which, in turn, has reduced administrative
costs.
5 The State of Broadband 2023

Broadband Citizens driving demand for government services,

with governments moving towards delivering
Demand Driver 2 digital services pro-actively

The demand for citizen services has surged, driven by the establishment of foundational digital
government products and services such as citizen digital identities, the capability to process
government services online (including tax), and interoperable databases.

Governments are increasingly restructuring their approaches to digital governance and citizen services,
as the pandemic triggered a virtuous cycle of creating digital government products and services,
including interoperable databases for digital identities and online payment systems and regulations.
This shift marks a significant focus on digital citizenry that may not have been as pronounced in the past.

Government TechStack, Singapore

In a whole-of-government (WOG) digital

transformation of the country’s public sector,
the Singaporean government re-architected
their public sector’s digital infrastructure
with the establishment of the Government
TechStack (see figure). It identified four layers
by which services could be provided, shared,
and built from:

(4) digital services, which are the application

layer that sits on top of the three foundational
layers

(3) microservices which are re-usable com-

mon services across government platforms
(such as citizen login functions)

(2) the middleware which provides interface

structures such as Application Programming
Interfaces (APIs)

(1) the hosting layer at the base

Figure 5: Singapore Government Tech Stack

Source: IMDA, 201811
 The State of Broadband 2023 6

Strategy for Digital Transformation, Brazil

The Brazilian government also rebuilt their public sector for a stronger foundation. Brazil established the
Strategy for Digital Transformation (E-Digital),12 which drove a digital transformation of its public sector
services, digitally upgrading and digitizing 68 public services, saving more than 90 per cent of service
costs. Through the development of government services linked on Portal de Serviços, its single website
for citizen services at servicos.gov.br, more than 1,750 citizen services can be accessed with citizen
identification and login authentication. This government service portal allows citizens to access a variety
of government services online, such as renewing their driver’s licenses, paying taxes, and applying for
social benefits.

Figure 6: Portal de Serviços Brasil on mobile

Source: Agensia Brasil, 202213

Aadhaar initiative, India

India’s Aadhaar initiative is another example of how governments re-architecting the foundation of digital
government products and services will start a virtuous cycle of digitization in both the public and private
sectors. Aadhaar was launched in 201014 to create a national biometric database for all Indian citizens,
providing everyone with an Aadhaar number. With the authentication undergirding direct cash transfers
during COVID-19, the Indian government was able to facilitate concession disbursements to more than
200 million women, and to over 18 million vulnerable building and construction workers in the country.
Today, many banks and payment facilities in India have come to use Aadhaar as a facilitation mechanism.
For example, the Reserve Bank of India’s National Payments Corporation of India allows people to use
Aadhaar to transfer money via its Bharat Interface for Money application entering the recipient’s Aadhaar
number.

Figure 7: India Aadhar Card

Source: PM Modi Yojana, 202315
7 The State of Broadband 2023

New entrepreneurs leading micro, small, and medium

Broadband enterprises (MSMEs) driving demand for demand for digital
Demand Driver 3 transformation and connectivity services

While this decade’s entrepreneurship story is driven by the success of the “unicorn” – a start-up company
with a valuation over USD 1 billion,16 micro-, small, or medium-sized enterprises (MSME)17 continue to
dominate and drive the business landscape, representing about 90 per cent of all businesses and being
responsible for more than 50 per cent of employment worldwide.18 In this context, there is significant
demand for broadband services driven by demand from MSMEs. This includes cloud-native companies,
those rapidly pivoting to digital services/delivery, and companies seeking to expand their trading border.

GoJek, Indonesia

Indonesia’s GoJek19, which began as a SME,

became one of the first unicorns in the country,
disrupting the taxi industry with its ride-hailing
app.20 Together with other ride-hailing apps like
Uber, Grab, Lyft, Ryde, Bolt, and others, these new
entrepreneurial services drove consumer use and
demand for always-on connectivity, fuelled by
demand for local and international location-track-
ing services. The company has since merged in
2021 with another Indonesia unicorn Tokopedia, to
form GoTo,21 a company which provides on-de-
mand, e-commerce and digital payments services,
and is now responsible for nearly 2 per cent of the Figure 8: GoTo Business Units
country’s GDP. 22 Source: GoTo, 202326

Jiji Online Marketplace

Jiji23 is an African online marketplace which launched

in 2014 and grew rapidly to have more than 10 million
unique visits per month, and hosts two million active ads
worth a total of USD 10 billion. One of its successes is
recognizing that the Nigerian home computer owner-
ship was low and focused its growth strategy on being
primarily mobile phone-based.24 With this in mind, Jiji’s
mobile app has fuelled its growth in Africa, and allowed
them to connect and engage with their customers quick-
ly and easily. Since 2021 Jiji is present in Ethiopia, Nigeria,
Kenya, Ghana, Uganda, and Tanzania, and in 2023 Jiji was
Figure 9: Jiji promotion the best e-commerce mobile app in Kenya .25
Source: Jiji Facebook page, 2019 27
 The State of Broadband 2023 8

Chapter
Chapter 22

Mapping
Connectivity Gaps
Broadband as Digital
Foundation
With the understanding that broadband is indeed one key
element for digital, the assessment of each of the 2025
Broadband Commission targets is critical to understand (1) the
progress made, (2) the gaps to be bridged, (3) the urgency and
importance of each of these for the future.

Image source: Sorapong, Canva