It appears that the march of the internet worldwide is slowing down. A new report from Internet pioneer Tim Berners-Lee’s World Wide Web Foundation has found that the growth rate of internet access has dropped across the world. India is an exception as it has cut prices of the internet considerably. Cheaper access to Cat videos is available in India. There is healthy market competition, growth in infrastructure, good policy making and the role of TRAI which has created an open access system to measure quality of service. India had an advantage over developed countries as it started from scratch and moved straight into the mobile internet boom. Reliance Jio made a disruptive entry but it resulted in a fall in access prices and toning up maintenance of quality of service. Voice had a different performance and did not contribute to growth of the Internet in India.
On the Affordability Drivers Index (ADI) India has risen from the 23rd rank to 8th in 2018, recording the sharpest climb among all the nations listed in the top 10 category in the running year. In order to measure internet affordability, the report uses ADI – a tool to evaluate how a country is positioned to make internet cheaper and increase its affordability. Malaysia tops the top 10 list while Dominican Republic stands last. Colombia, Peru, Costa Rica, Mexico, Turkey and Argentina follow Malaysia. The annual percentage increase in the global number of people coming online has decreased from 12 percent between 2005 and 2014 to 6.5 percent between 2015 and 2017, the report said.
In terms of internet pricing India is outmatched by Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Myanmar and Vietnam as the price of 1GB mobile prepaid broadband data as a percentage of gross national income (GNI) per capita reduced sharply in India in the last two years. This was 1.53 percent in 2017, higher than in Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Myanmar. In 2015, the price was 3.55 percent in India. According to the International Telecommunication Union data, the number of internet users in India has risen from 92 million in 2010 to 390 million in 2016. The WWW’s study takes into account purchasing power relative to average household income. India has a consistent rise in net affordability. Global communications have expanded but as many as 50% are offline. The majority of those disconnected from the internet are in developing countries. The digital divide is indicative of international inequalities. Affordability of access should be a global target. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s drive for Digital India deserves a salute.