Definitions first. According to Wikipedia: “The term digital divide refers to the gap between those people with effective access to digital and information technology and those without.” This definition has its heart in the right place, problem is, this is an antiquated concept because, by and large, the digital divide is no more.
The digital divide is anchored in historical facts, through the last decade of the previous century and the first years of this one, digital existence was based almost inclusively on computers, PCs, laptops and similar devices. The first barrier was the actual technology behind the devices – processing speed, memory size, graphic capabilities, storage space etc. Then, crucially, the divide arose from the devices’ ability to connect to the Internet via an ISP. The third divide related to available bandwidth. There is no doubt that one could easily demarcate the divide between haves and have-nots.
Enters the cellphone.
The United Nations’ Population Division, which is part of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs, estimates that by 2010 the total world population will reach 6.9 billion and by 2015 it will hit 7.3 billion. According to the Portio Research Mobile Factbook 2008, the current number of worldwide mobile subscribers is estimated around 3.5 billion. That number is set to reach 4.5 billion subscribers by 2011. Portio’s latest report estimates further that the number of worldwide mobile subscribers will reach 5.5 billion by the end of 2013 – this means that around the year 2013, 77.46% of the world’s population, will be mobile phone subscribers.
Let’s revisit our list of barriers to digital entry. 5.5 billion mobile phone subscribers will have no problem with processing speed, memory size, graphic capabilities and storage space, all of which are available on even the most humble handsets. Accessibility and bandwidth will be provided by the networks – allowing minimal access to internet resources. The combination of satellite technologies, international submarine communications cables and local capabilities should be able to guarantee at least entry level connectivity to most of the world’s cellphone subscribers.
With 74% of the world’s population using cellphones there can be no digital divide.
We need to address a potential challenges to my statement: Maybe the digital divide will simply realign itself along the fault lines between cellphones and the old Desktop / laptop guard, dividing the world between mobile have not’s vs. desktop / laptop have’s? The answer to this is obvious when looking at the massive realignment in the industry to realise that the move to mobile-universe is a no-brainer. Consider, for example, Nokia’s acquisition and subsequent release as open source of Symbian, Apple iPhone, Google Android and Google Chrome, the various Linux flavoured mobile OS’s and, of course, Microsoft Mobile Windows. There is no doubt that there is life after PC/Laptop.
If three-quarters of people on earth will have a cellphone, you can bet that they will be surrounded with ISPs, keen to provide access, handset sellers with a string of upgrades and networks with subsidies package deals and – most auspicious – content providers offering an endless stream of goodies – from text to social SMS to audio, to podcasts, to video, to the full Monty.
Those who keep banding that almost-dead horse of digital divide should web-Google “mobile web usage” and do a quick scan of the first 5 or 6 result headers –
1. Dan’s Blog (2.0) » iPhone Spurs Mobile Web Usage
2. Opera: Mobile web usage continues to rise worldwide
3. Mobile web usage grows nearly 30% in Q2
4. Mobile Web Usage Up 29 Percent; Carrier-Driven Traffic Continues…
5. Mobile Web Use Growing Faster than Ever
If this will not convince some of the digital divide diehards then, to quote old Queen Marie “Qu’ils mangent de la brioche!”
Rudy-Nadler Nir has been passionately immersed in all things digital for almost 20 years. Rudy has a Master’s degree in adult education and is currently researching digital communities for his PhD, with special emphasis on the way young adults use cellphones to create and sustain social networks. He blogs at ToingToing!
You are, of course, right. I have no doubt at all that mobile is the future to the closing over of the divide. DCI and Highway Africa were shot through with that single theme – mobile is the divide solution. However, having spent two mornings giving workshops for community media practitioners from all over SA on new media et al, and on the basis of my conversations there, I can tell you that it is too early to say the digital divide is gone. It’s still pretty much grand canyon status. Some of the terms of web 2.0 have begun to be common currency but the language is still impenetrable for many. And once one feels that lack of understanding (and, believe me, I am a fellow traveller here in many ways despite my occupation as a podcast creator), the inertia against finding out more is considerable. Add that to the many difficulties of accessing the internet regularly, quickly and freely to try and find the information if you do overcome it. Even more importantly, the opening speaker of DCI,Damariasenne in a great presentation, pointed that having the phone is only one tiny start. Most people who have one, no matter how sophisticated, use it only for making and receiving calls, often only receiving via ‘please call me’, or sms. Just because a phone can do something, it doesn’t mean that people can. There is also the issue of charging the phone. People are running businesses in the rural areas where they charge people’s phones for ten rand a time because so many do not have access to electricity. These are the kinds of issues that need to be addressed if we are to make the divide narrower. From my work over the last two days, I can say the awareness is growing, the interest is there – but so is the frustration, the bafflement and feelings of exclusion. We who dwell in this world have to remember what a tiny and, to many, currently irrelevant world it is. And work to change that.