People in low- and lower-middle-income African countries must work four times harder to get broadband internet and nearly five times harder for a mobile connection that is comparatively slower than that enjoyed by users in high-income countries.
This is in line with the Digital Quality of Life Index (DQL) report released by the cybersecurity firm Surfshark, which compares countries based on five pillars that, together, define the quality of digital life. These pillars are internet accessibility, internet quality, e-infrastructure, e-security and e-government.
The survey found that in some countries such as Côte d'Ivoire, Mali and Nigeria people have to shell out the equivalent of a week's work to get access to the internet.
Also, on average, people in low- and low-income countries have to work more than 20 minutes and 19 seconds a month to afford the cheapest 1GB of mobile internet.
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By way of comparison, the report said that people in high-income countries only need to spend 4 minutes and 7 seconds, 4,9 times less than people in low- and lower-middle-income countries (21,33 Mbps). High-income countries also have access to nearly three times faster mobile internet connections (61,41 Mbps).
According to the report, the situation worsens when it comes to broadband Internet access, as people in low- and lower-middle-income countries work the equivalent of approximately 11 hours and 10 minutes per month for the most expensive broadband package. cheap, 4,2 times more than people with high income (2 hours 41 minutes).
The study also showed that the average broadband Internet connection speed in high-income countries is four times higher (113,19 Mbps) than in low- and middle-income countries (28,53 Mbps)
Vytautas Kaziukonis, CEO of Surfshark, said: “Digital opportunities have proven to be more important than ever during the COVID-19 pandemic, underscoring the importance of each country securing fully remote operational capabilities for their economies. However, Internet accessibility varies greatly in quality and accessibility depending on where we live, revealing deep inequalities between low-income and high-income countries."
