90+ percent of the people in the world’s 49 least developed countries lack internet access

 

A woman is 21 percent less likely than a man to own a phone in low and middle-income countries. Globally, this equates to a mobile phone gender gap of roughly 300 million women. USAID’s partnership with GSMA, AusAID, and Visa, the GSMA Connected Women Program, aims to enable 150 million underserved women to own and effectively use mobile phones to access vital information, networks, and services.

 

In 2011, only 20 percent of Iraqi mobile operator Asiacell’s subscribers were women. Research produced that year through the GSMA mWomen Program sparked Asiacell to design a new product catering to women called the Almas Line, which includes features like rate reductions during off-peak hours and a “bye-bye” option to block potential harassers. In two years, more than two million women have enrolled, doubling the proportion of Asiacell’s female customers.

 

Today, in many developing countries, more than half of Internet users access it exclusively through mobile devices. This is set to grow as smartphones and tablets become more available. Access to the Internet drives economic growth, but mobile broadband costs are prohibitively high for most people in developing countries. USAID’s partnership with Google.org, Omidyar Network, DFID, and a host of other governments, technology providers, civil society groups, and academia is empowering policy makers with the tools and resources to facilitate more open, competitive markets. This partnership, the Alliance for Affordable Internet, aims to bring broadband prices down to no more than 5 percent of monthly income, enabling the next two billion users to come online.