Democratising access to connectivity
Democratising Access to Connectivity
A third of the planet 2.6 billion people are still offline. Globally, 38% of the world's population are not using mobile internet despite living in areas with mobile broadband coverage.
The usage gap remains almost eight times the size of the coverage gap. There are many barriers preventing the use of mobile broadband, including lack of awareness, low literacy and digital skills, device affordability and the cost of data.
Smartphone access in Africa
The cost of smartphones remains a key barrier for people to get connected. Approximately 62% of Vodacom’s customers have access to a smartphone. With entry-level smartphones in Sub-Saharan Africa costing 99% of average monthly income for the poorest 20% and given that smartphones are increasingly the main gateway to digital services, lowering the cost of devices is key to addressing the digital divide.
Understanding the challenges to universal smartphone access
Smartphone ownership is the lowest in emerging markets.
Women are less likely to own a smartphone than men.
Only 45% of adults in emerging markets own a smartphone, compared to 76% in advanced economies.
Smartphones can cost over 70% of the average income in less-developed countries, making them unaffordable.
How we are increasing smartphone access in Africa
Low-cost sourcing
We offer entry level 4G devices to address the affordability challenge.
This year, we introduced a new cloud-based phone, that comes with popular applications such as YouTube, TikTok and Facebook as standard, all accessed via cloud at an affordable cost.
Our goal is to increase smartphone penetration in our African markets.
Digital Gender Gap
The digital gender gap continues to grow in many less-developed countries where women are 15% less likely than men to use mobile internet. This means there are 265 million fewer women than men using mobile internet.
Social and cultural norms underpins barriers to gender equity in mobile internet use - the top reported barriers to adoption are affordability (particularly of handsets) and literacy and digital skills and women feel these barriers more acutely than men.
In fact, while most people who are aware of mobile internet feel that it is equally important for both men and women to use it, among those who do not feel that it is equally important, a greater proportion believe that it is more important for men to use mobile internet.
Data Democratisation in Africa
Smartphone ownership is lowest in emerging markets. Out of Vodacom’s 134 million customers, approximately 62% have access to a smartphone.
ConnectU
ConnectU, which is live in South Africa, DRC and Mozambique provides free access to basic internet and essential services and resources including education, health services, jobs boards and social networks to support those unable to afford data.
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