Burkina Faso Mobile Broadband Users Pay $1300 a Month

Lack of broadband internet access in developing countries denies them possibilities of information technology such as creating offshoring industries like call centers and back offices, a U.N. agency report said yesterday. The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) report also said lack of broadband capability also deprives people all the advantages of mobile phones.

"The narrowing of the digital divide remains a key development challenge," Petko Draganov, UNCTAD Deputy Secretary-General, said. "What is known as the broadband gap for example is becoming a serious handicap for companies in many poor countries."

Consumers and corporations are 200 times more likely to have access to broadband in developed countries than in the poorest Least Developed Countries, the report points out. Cost of broadband access also has a wide variance, from over $1,300 a month in Burkina Faso, Swaziland or Central African Republic to under $13 in Egypt and Tunisia.

Mobile phone usage is on the rise in poorer countries as people are using mobile phones for banking, to check markets and monitor the weather, all of which reducing travel needs and boost productivity. Africa already has 20 times more mobile phone subscribers than fixed lines; India added around 100 million new mobile subscribers in the first seven months of this year. But broadband capacity must be expanded to keep pace.