Canada drops by six places in ICT ranking: ITU

Canada’s ranking in information and communications technology (ICT) development has fallen to 26th place from 20th in 2008, a new report from the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) says. The ITU global ranking report, released Thursday and titled “Measuring the Information Society 2011,” noted Canada's difference with the U.S. on mobile broadband. "By 2010, Canada, for example, had a much lower mobile-broadband penetration rate (15 per cent) than the United States (54 per cent) and many other high-income economies,” the report said. The report ranked the United States ahead of Canada at 17, although the U.S. dropped three places from 2008. The United State's mobile broadband capacity is increasing rapidly, the ITU said. “Penetration rates rose to 54 per cent at the end of 2010, compared with 26 per cent at the end of 2008,” the report said. Roberta Fox, head of Fox Group Consulting, told The Wire Report via email that Canada lacks investment in information and communications technology. “Our opinion at Fox Group is that our productivity is lower due to a lack of investment in ICT overall. s a percentage of business investments in Canada, is lower than other countries studied,” Fox wrote. “We believe that the Canadian government should provide tax incentives specifically geared to SMBs and enterprise clients to encourage investment in ICT similar to what they did in infrastructure programs.” Canada has been under pressure to release a national digital strategy following delays. Michael Geist, the Canada research chair in Internet and e-commerce law at the University of Ottawa, agreed that Canada's ranking drop of six places isn’t good news. “There’s been ongoing concern about Canada and the digital environment, both in the long delays in developing a digital economy strategy as well as concerns about the competitive environment for wireless and broadband services,” he said. “And the report obviously takes those sorts of issues as part of their basket.” In a June report, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) said Canada did not compare well when placed next to top developed nations in the world for national broadband connectivity and speed targets. The ITU ranked Canada 21st in its ICT price basket, a list where the U.S. ranked 12th. Monaco ranked first in the ITU's international pricing basket. The ITU said pricing for information and communications technology services, which include fixed telephone, mobile, and fixed broadband Internet services, dropped by 18 per cent globally between 2008 and 2010. The biggest decrease was in fixed broadband services, “where average prices have come down by 52 per cent,” the ITU said. The report said that although broadband is becoming more affordable, developing countries are still paying too much for the service. ITU data showed that in developed countries, average prices for ICT services made up only 1.5 per cent of monthly per capita income. In developing countries, average ICT prices accounted for 17 per cent of income, the ITU said. “hile broadband prices declined sharply worldwide, a high-speed Internet connection remains unaffordable in many low-income countries,” the ITU said. The report showed that in Africa the average price of broadband cost nearly 290 per cent of monthly income in 2010, down from 650 per cent in 2008. The report said that the biggest relative price drop was experienced in Africa’s fixed broadband sub-basket, which fell by 55.2 per cent. Fox said she found it interesting that broadband pricing was similar in poor countries as in Canada. “If you look at their monthly income, the rates are actually the same or less than in Canada,” Fox said in an interview. “It’s just that their incomes are about five per cent of what ours are. So as far as percentage, absolutely, it’s a big number. But I do find it interesting that people are still spending the money.” The ITU said in its report that “it should also be noted that while mobile broadband is able to overcome important infrastructure barriers, users still need to invest in relatively expensive handsets (or computers, netbooks, tablets, laptops, etc.) in order to be able to take full advantage of high-speed Internet access and the services and applications it can deliver.” The Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) experienced a price drop between 2008 and 2010, where fixed broadband prices decreased by 51.8 per cent. Asia and the Pacific experienced a decrease of 46.7 per cent in the same period, the Arab States a decrease of 34.7 per cent and Europe 18 per cent. The ITU said 154 economies across the globe had launched 3G networks by the end of 2010. “Wireless broadband Internet access remains the strongest growth sector in developing countries, with mobile broadband growing by 160 per cent between 2009 and 2010,” it added. According to the report, mobile cellular penetration is now more than 100 per cent in many developed countries and 70 per cent in developing nations. The Americas showed the “most modest” change in fixed broadband, with prices decreasing by less than 10 per cent during the period, the report said. The ITU said the top-ranked countries on its ICT development index were the Republic of Korea and Sweden. Korea has implemented policies since 2008 that have allowed it to become an “IT powerhouse,” the report said. Korea rolled out a number of government initiatives, including its Giga Internet pilot project, which included the construction of 100 Mbps broadband networks in rural areas, the report said. According to ITU data, Korea has a 91 per cent mobile broadband penetration rate—the highest in the world—and a rate of 36.6 per cent for fixed broadband. The ITU said Sweden followed Korea on the global list, with 90 per cent of its population actively using the Internet. “Recent data show that in Sweden there are now almost as many mobile broadband subscriptions as fixed broadband,” the report said. “And that mobile data traffic continues to grow strongly, with an increase of just over 90 per cent in the last year.” Iceland, Denmark and Finland rounded out the top five countries on the ICT development index. The ITU said penetration for fixed and mobile broadband over the past few years shows that the end of the dial-up connection is coming. “Conversely, the number of dial-up Internet subscriptions has been decreasing rapidly since 2007,” the ITU said. “And based on current trends, the ‘death of dial-up’ is expected to become a reality over the next few years.” dgrenier@thewirereport.ca

Canada drops by six places in ICT ranking: ITU

News | September 15, 2011

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