As someone who has worked in Telecoms for the last twenty years and is also the father of teenage children, I am aware of an uncomfortable truth – as with many other things in our world, access to digital connectivity is not evenly distributed, and this situation serves no-one. In countries with open and well-regulated telecoms ecosystems, broadband connectivity is generally affordable and (virtually*) ubiquitous.

*of course, this is not universally the case, and our collective experiences of the Covid-19 pandemic have served to highlight the disadvantage and dislocation felt by particular user groups in such countries, who remain unconnected.

However, elsewhere in the world, the opposite remains true - access to connectivity is not a general right, accessible easily by the many, it is an exclusive privilege, attainable only by the few, at a very high price.

To illustrate, recent analysis by the United Nations indicates that there are 40 countries where the retail cost of 1.5GB delivered as mobile broadband equates to 5% or more of monthly gross national income per capita 1 . Imagine spending 5% of your monthly income to get 1.5GB (which, by the way, would only enable you to browse the web or use social media for around 1 hour per day).

This matters because access to digital connectivity is a critical enabler of wider, sustainable development. The United Nations / International Telecoms Union Broadband Commission for Sustainable Development (https://www.broadbandcommission.org) describe, powerfully, how access to digital connectivity underpins achievement of the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals.

This connectivity enables greater access to education and health services. It powers financial inclusion. It supports the development of new micro-business and efficiency improvements in existing ones. It can even make a positive contribution to the Climate Change agenda.

Connecting the unconnected disproportionately benefits women and children.

So, in summary, we should think of access to connectivity as a new human right. How else can ensure that everyone has an equal opportunity to participate in our collective, global digital community?

But, that is not the end of the story. The disadvantages of being disconnected are clear. But there are also clear downsides in its mirror reflection, that is a sense of being hyper-connected. Where access to digital services has become faster and cheaper, usage has skyrocketed. These increased levels of usage are associated with a different but also concerning set of problems, such as the prevalence of an anxiety amongst young people and detrimental impacts on the quality of our sleep.

Perhaps this should not be surprising as, after all, common sense suggests that too much of a good thing is usually not healthy!

I am no Luddite and this is not a zero sum game. I believe that being connected can benefit everyone, in our global society. But I also have my eyes open to the unforeseen consequences of being hyper-connected. Perhaps this itself is an opportunity? As those of us who have the privilege of ubiquitous access to digital connectivity wrestle with the challenge of ‘switching-off’, maybe it will help us to think of those who do not have an opportunity to ‘switch-on’?

How can we realise the benefit of disconnecting ourselves, when we need to, whilst also empowering others to connect, where it will clearly benefit them?

At the theunconnected.org, we are a team of social entrepreneurs and telecoms professionals who have come together to find sustainable solutions to connect 1m new people to the Internet, by 2025.

References:

1 https://www.broadbandcommission.org/publications/Pages/SOB-2020.aspx

2 https://www.itstimetologoff.com/digital-detox-facts/