Indicator Definition
Availability and accessibility of cell phone and internet services in each country.
Coding Methodology
To measure this indicator we used data from the World Bank’s Little Data Books on Information and Communication Technology. It is a composite metric that combines measures of four sub-indicators: access, usage, quality and affordability and captures both cellular and internet services. For the sub-indicators: access, usage, and quality, each country was measured relative to a baseline measurement. Baselines were determined using the value of one standard deviation for data of the sub-indicator. Sub-indicator measures that were less than the value of one standard deviation were scored one while sub-indicator measures with values greater than one standard deviation were scored zero. We measured affordability scores using a baseline of three percent of the country’s annual per capita gross national income. Three percent represents approximately twice the global average cost for an internet connection. Countries with telecom costs exceeding this baseline were scored one, countries below the baseline were scored zero. Scores were converted to a one to seven scales using the following formula:
Where: i = sub-indicator scores and, j = country. The results were rounded to the nearest whole number.
The tables below summarizes the criteria and coding scheme used to measure each sub-indicator and the corresponding baseline measurements.
|
Sub-Indicator |
Criteria |
Baseline (BL) to Score |
|
|
Access |
Mobile-cellular telephone subscriptions (per 100 people) |
≥ BL = 0 |
< BL = 1 |
|
Households with Internet access at home (%)* |
≥ BL% = 0 |
< BL% = 1 |
|
|
Usage |
Domestic mobile traffic (minutes/subscription/month) |
≥ BL = 0 |
< BL = 1 |
|
Individuals using the Internet (%) |
≥ BL% = 0 |
< BL% = 1 |
|
|
Quality |
Percentage of population covered by a 3G mobile network or better (%)** |
≥ BL% = 0 |
< BL% = 1 |
|
International Internet bandwidth (bit/s per Internet user) |
≥ BL = 0 |
< BL = 1 |
|
|
Affordability |
Mobile-cellular sub-basket cost ($ a month)*** |
< 3% of per capita GNI/12 = 0
|
≥ 3% of per capita GNI/12 = 1 |
|
Fixed-broadband sub-basket cost ($ a month)**** |
< 3% of per capita GNI/12 = 0
|
≥ 3% of per capita GNI/12 = 1 |
|
|
Table of Baselines |
||||||
|
|
Mobile-cellular telephone subscribers (per 100 people) |
Fixed broadband Internet subscribers (per 100 people)* |
Domestic mobile traffic (minutes/ subscription/month) |
Internet users (per 100 people) |
Population covered by a mobile cellular network (%)** |
Internet bandwidth (bits per second per person) |
|
2008 |
45 |
13 |
179 |
24 |
24% |
537,975 |
|
2010 |
43 |
30 |
66 |
28 |
27% |
70,668 |
|
2012 |
43 |
31 |
87 |
29 |
25% |
328,713 |
|
2014 |
45 |
31 |
82 |
29 |
23% |
580,289 |
|
2016 |
42 |
31 |
627 |
28 |
23% |
738,072 |
* For 2008 we used: Fixed broadband internet subscribers (per 100 people)
** For 2008-2012 we used: Population covered by a mobile cellular network (%)
*** For 2008 we used: Mobile cellular prepaid tariff ($ a month)
****For 2008 we used: Fixed broadband internet access tariff ($ a month)
Data Imputation
We did not impute values for this indicator. However, in some countries, we encountered several missing values. In these cases, the source documents provided an average value for that indicator calculated using the values from countries within the same World Bank economic classification.
Sources
World Bank. 2018. Little Data Books on Information and Communication Technology