{"id":359771,"date":"2025-09-27T17:57:54","date_gmt":"2025-09-27T12:27:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.technologyforyou.org\/?p=359771"},"modified":"2025-09-27T17:57:54","modified_gmt":"2025-09-27T12:27:54","slug":"gsma-calls-for-renewed-focus-on-closing-the-usage-gap-as-more-than-3-billion-people-remain-offline-despite-available-mobile-internet-services","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.technologyforyou.org\/gsma-calls-for-renewed-focus-on-closing-the-usage-gap-as-more-than-3-billion-people-remain-offline-despite-available-mobile-internet-services\/","title":{"rendered":"GSMA calls for renewed focus on closing the Usage Gap as more than 3 billion people remain offline despite available mobile internet services"},"content":{"rendered":"

Though 200 million more people began using mobile internet in 2024, \u00a0much more needs to be done to help those living in areas with coverage but not yet connecting to it<\/em><\/p>\n

London, 9 September 2025:\u00a0<\/strong>4.7 billion people, or 58% of the world\u2019s population, now use mobile internet services on their own device, according to the flagship annual\u00a0State of Mobile Internet Connectivity<\/em>\u00a0report<\/a>\u00a0from the GSMA, the global industry body for the mobile sector.<\/p>\n

However, despite 96% of the global population living in areas with mobile internet coverage available to them, 3.1 billion people are still not using it. These people \u2013 38 % of the world\u2019s population \u2013 sit within what is known as the Usage Gap, with barriers other than coverage availability keeping them offline.<\/p>\n

Mobile remains the primary, and in many cases only, way most people access the internet in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), and now accounts for 84% of global internet connections.<\/p>\n

Progress continues to be made in delivering mobile internet coverage to everyone, everywhere, with an additional 40 million people covered by mobile internet infrastructure last year, the majority (75%) in Sub-Saharan Africa. This leaves around 300 million people (4% of the global population) living in what is labelled the Coverage Gap, lacking any available mobile internet connectivity.<\/p>\n

This means that 3.4 billion people globally remained unconnected to mobile internet services in 2024 \u2013 a combination of the Usage Gap and the Coverage Gap. The overwhelming majority (over 90%) of these live in areas with available coverage they remain unable or unwilling to use. Closing this Usage Gap would provide an estimated $3.5 trillion in additional GDP globally over the eight years to 2030.<\/p>\n

\"Infographic<\/figure>\n

Addressing imbalances in LMICs<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The vast majority (93%) of the unconnected live in LMICs, where further divides pose additional challenges. Adults living in rural areas in LMICs are 25% less likely to use mobile internet services than those in urban areas, while women in LMICs are 14% less likely than men to be online via mobile.<\/p>\n

Key barriers to mobile internet adoption include awareness of mobile internet, affordability (primarily of handsets) and digital skills and literacy.<\/p>\n

Across LMICs, the affordability of an entry-level, internet-enabled device has remained relatively unchanged since 2021 and represents 16% of average monthly income, increasing to 48% for the poorest 20%.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlthough \u2018the digital divide\u2019 and \u2018connect the unconnected\u2019 have been on the agenda for well over a decade, the time has come to drive more meaningful progress,\u201d<\/em>\u00a0comments Vivek Badrinath, Director General of the GSMA.\u00a0\u201cA device at $30 could make handsets affordable to up to 1.6 billion people who are currently priced out of connecting to available mobile internet coverage.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cTo produce this will require a concerted, collaborative effort between the mobile industry, device manufacturers, policy makers, financial institutions and more, but it is a responsibility we all must shoulder.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

In 2024, the GSMA launched the\u00a0Handset Affordability Coalition<\/a>, an initiative involving major global mobile operators, vendors, device ecosystem players, international organisations and financing institutions, such as the World Bank Group, the ITU and the WEF Edison Alliance, with the aim of accelerating access to smartphones among LMIC populations.<\/p>\n

Driving meaningful connectivity<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Other barriers to using available mobile internet services include the lack of relevant content, concerns over security, and limited or no access to fundamental enablers such as consistent electricity.<\/p>\n

A key ongoing challenge, even among the 4.7 billion people who are already online via mobile, is in encouraging meaningful connectivity \u2013 users having a safe, satisfying, enriching and productive online experience that is affordable in their context. While most mobile internet users use it every day, often this is limited to one or two activities, such as checking a news site or social media feed.<\/p>\n

On the coverage side, progress continues to be made both in standard and more advanced technologies, with 5G services now covering more than half the world\u2019s population (54%) and 4G reaching 93%, though rollout is slowing as 5G investment is prioritised.<\/p>\n

\u201cGetting online has enormous and undeniable socioeconomic benefits to individuals and societies,\u201d\u00a0<\/em>Badrinath continues. \u201cEssential services such as healthcare, education, e-commerce and banking are now most commonly accessed online, and for billions of people this primarily means on mobile.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cIn 96% of the world, the infrastructure is in place for people to get online via mobile. Removing the remaining barriers to using these services is essential to ensuring existing digital divides are reduced rather than deepened and many more of these 3.1 billion people can benefit from life-changing connectivity.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Though 200 million more people began using mobile internet in 2024, \u00a0much more needs to be done to help those living in areas with coverage but not yet connecting to it London, 9 September 2025:\u00a04.7 billion people, or 58% of the world\u2019s population, now use mobile internet services on their own device, according to the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24684,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9231],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-359771","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-top-stories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyforyou.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359771","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyforyou.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyforyou.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyforyou.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyforyou.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=359771"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyforyou.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359771\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyforyou.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24684"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyforyou.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=359771"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyforyou.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=359771"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyforyou.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=359771"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}