Public Disclosure Authorized January 2021 MINIMUM DATA Analytical Insights CONSUMPTION worldbank.org/digitaldevelopment How much is needed to support online activities, and is it affordable? Public Disclosure Authorized

Key Findings

• The primary payment method for mobile internet usage in most developing countries is prepaid, with the amount tied to a specific volume of data usage. Data volume is therefore a useful yardstick to determine how much is needed to carry out important welfare enhancing activities online. •

Public Disclosure Authorized • For foundational online activities, which include websites for public services, health information, shopping, learning, and news, we estimate using data from six developing countries that 660MB per month, per user are needed for these welfare-enhancing activities. For common recreational online activities – particularly social media use – we estimate that an additional 5.2GB per month, per user is needed, for a total of approximately 6GB per month, per user. • • While the cheapest 30-day data packages in most of the countries examined exceed this minimum estimate, the cost of these packages exceeds more than 2% of income for the bottom 40% of the population, which risks widening the digital divide. • • The COVID-19 pandemic has further increased the demand for data by triggering widespread use of video conferencing for work, learning and health among others. This increased demand, along

Public Disclosure Authorized with the continuous development of more data-heavy content, will continue to inflate the minimum data needed for welfare enhancing activities, which may further exacerbate the digital divide if more affordable packages or other alternatives mechanisms for facilitating connectivity are not provided for the most vulnerable populations.

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The internet reached a milestone in 2018 when Lacking access to information and services is approximately half the world’s population was considered a welfare depravation.2 Years ago, access online.1 Growing internet use provides opportunities was defined as having a or television, but to enhance decision making capabilities and drive today it has been updated to include an internet socio-economic progress. For individuals, access connection. Access to the internet is also being to online multimedia educational, health and incorporated into poverty analysis.3 Having an livelihood content has potential positive impacts on internet connection is also included in some multi- improving welfare. For those who used to be at the dimensional poverty indices such as the Material periphery, getting connected to the internet also Deprivation Indices.4 means moving closer to the market, for instance through e-commerce platforms, participating in Mobile is the predominant way most people access the gig economy or contributing to the bourgeoning the internet in developing countries 5 and among user-generated-content sector. These gains include lower income groups in developed nations. The an increase in knowledge, more convenient access primary payment method for mobile internet to public services, improving health outcomes usage in most developing nations is prepaid, with and higher productivity. Welfare gains also accrue the amount tied to a specific volume of data usage. from the avoided travel and opportunity costs by Data volume is therefore a useful yardstick to carrying out these activities online. determine how much is needed to carry out welfare

1 ITU (2019). 2 Gordon (2005). 4 Guio, Gordon and Marlier (2012). 3 UNECE (2017). 5 GSMA (2019). worldbank.org/digitaldevelopment

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enhancing activities online. Similar to determining basis that it is an amount needed to “benefit from daily calorie requirements for food,6 or identifying a the Internet in a meaningful way.” However, there minimum threshold for household electric energy,7 was no empirical analysis identifying important the aim of this report is to present an estimate of online activities and how much data they use. minimum data consumption levels. The Broadband Commission also establishes a 2% income threshold but without specifying an Global targets have been established for mobile amount of data. This is problematic given that in data affordability based on the relative price for a most emerging markets, data is charged by volume specific amount of data. For instance, the Alliance purchased over a certain time period. This note for Affordable Internet (A4AI) target calls for estimates the amount of data needed to support prices to be less than 2% of monthly income for 1 basic life activities for an individual and discusses Gigabit (GB) of data.8 One GB was selected on the its affordability implications.

FOUNDATIONAL AND WELFARE-ENHANCING ONLINE ACTIVITIES?

Identifying important online activities for reduces travel, transport, and waiting time and helps individuals is the first step towards determining lower transaction costs. For example, in Australia how much data is needed to access them. These the annual savings to citizens in terms of time, activities are identified through the prism of welfare convenience and out-of-pocket costs from online enhancement. Online activities that save costs and government services was estimated at A$787 (US$ time for consumers such as access to public services 591) million, equivalent to almost 1% of household and shopping are deemed to be most relevant. consumption expenditure.9 Data from Sri Lanka Activities that add to consumer knowledge such also shows that e-services reduce the time to obtain as health, reference information and news are also a public service from 371 minutes in 2011 to 124 recognized. Each of these activities is reviewed minutes in 2013.10 The cost to obtain a public service below. also decreased from LKR 1,553 (US$ 13.74) to LKR 747 (US$ 5.79) during the same period.11 This cost Online access to public services is an increasingly includes travel, opportunity cost, service fees, food, important life quality-improving resource as it accommodation and any other costs associated with

6 NHS, “What should my daily intake of calories be?” at: https://www.nhs.uk/common-health-questions/food-and-diet/what-should-my-daily-intake-of-calories-be/. 7 IEA (2020). 8 A4AI (2016). 9 Deloitte (2015). 10 ICTA (2013). 11 The e-services cost is from ICTA (2013). Annual household expenditure in Sri Lanka is derived from Department of Census and Statistics. 2015. Household Income and Expenditure Survey 2012/13 ICTA (2013).

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This convenience also drives online shopping, which saves people time and money compared to traditional offline shopping. A survey of consumers in three developing Asian countries found that the main reasons for buying online was the ability to shop anytime, find cheaper prices, and save time from not commuting to a physical shop.15 In China, a study of rural households in three provinces found the cost of living reduced by 5.5% for those shopping online.16 Online shopping has further grown during COVID-19 due to store closures, worldbank.org/digitaldevelopment social distancing and self-quarantine requirements.17

Beyond online shopping, a variety of online obtaining a public service on site. As government resources including content, platforms and tools services move online, public demand is also provide opportunities for learning. One of the most increasing due to convenience and transparency. popular is Wikipedia, a online encyclopedia For example, a program teaching basic digital skills which receives approximately 6,000 visitors per in Rwanda found that after social media, the most second.18 A 2016 survey of Wikipedia users found requested service for help was regarding how to use that on average around 35% use it to look up a the government online service “Irembo.” 12 specific fact, 33% use it to retrieve an overview or topic summary and 32% access the site to read about The internet also enables access to online health a topic in-depth.19 With reference material available information, which can facilitate progress towards in over 300 languages, this website receives visitors Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 3 on Good from across the world seeking information and Health and Well-Being. Empirical evidence knowledge. from Poland found that access to online health information influenced users to change lifestyles and In addition to online learning and reference encouraged interaction with doctors.13 Retrieving resources, accessing news is another important information online is also convenient for those online activity as the internet provides free and who live far from a health clinic. For instance, in low cost news content, making it a preferred news Rwanda, the average time to reach a medical center source for many. In addition to low cost, accessing is about 50 minutes.14 online news is also more convenient compared to

12 GSMA (2017). 16 Couture et al. (2018). 13 Bujnowska-Fedak and Węgierek (2020). 17 WTO (2020). 14 NISR (2018). 18 See https://valdaiclub.com/a/highlights/wikipedia-20-years-on-intellectual-snobbery/. 15 LIRNEasia (2018). 19 See https://diff.wikimedia.org/2018/03/15/why-the-world-reads-wikipedia/

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non-digital mediums. In a 2019 Pew poll, 89% of of social media could also have potential negative Americans surveyed get at least some of their local implications such as addiction, depression and news digitally, whether from news websites, apps anxiety.23 Some social media activities such as user- or social media.20 A survey among undergraduate generated content also show potential in providing students in Nigeria also suggests that young people new income streams for people. For instance, local rely on online channels to keep updated with news artists in Kenya, Nigeria and South are due to its speed and often free accessibility.21 leveraging TikTok, a video entertainment platform, to gain more market exposure and business Lastly, given interpersonal connections are opportunities.24 These social media activities, along recognized as one of the important factors affecting with the other aforementioned internet activities happiness and well-being, it has been argued that that help improve welfare, are applied in the social media can not only provide an efficient way minimum data consumption estimates presented of communicating but also help improve individual in the next section. welfare.22 Though, it’s worth noting that intensive use

20 Pew Research Center (2019). 21 Adekannbi and Agbolabori (2018). 22 Myers (2000); Reis, Collins, and Berscheid (2000); Chopik (2017). 23 Allcott et. al. (2020). 24 Alexandria Williams. 2020. “TikTok is quietly snapping up creatives from YouTube and Instagram for a full Africa roll-out.” Quartz Africa, March 10. https://qz.com/africa/1815825/tiktok-is-winning-young-african-stars-from-youtube-instagram/. worldbank.org/digitaldevelopment

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DATA CONSUMPTION FOR FOUNDATIONAL ONLINE ACTIVITIES

After identifying the list of important, foundational income countries. These figures were then used online activities, the next step for estimating to convert the total time spent into an equivalent minimum data consumption is determining how data consumption amount based on the nature of much time should be allocated to each activity. activities, which have different data requirements. No research exists that estimates how much time The objective here is to provide insight on how people need to spend on foundational online much data certain activities might be required activities to derive benefits. The simple approach for a general user, recognizing that some users taken in this paper was to consider the average such as students might need much more data for time spent engaging in these activities in a globally foundational online activities. diverse sample of six low and lower middle- To estimate the average time individuals spend on different online activities, data from Alexa (www. alexa.com), a website traffic ranking platform, was used. Country government portals and health ministry websites are used as proxies for the public services and health categories, while Wikipedia – the fifth most popular website in the world – is used as a proxy for learning activity. 25 The top online news and shopping sites for each country are also identified using Alexa, which ranks the most popular websites based on the amount of time spent and pages viewed.26 An important limitation with using Alexa’s ranking platform is that the data indicates only one global time figure for all users visiting a respective site. Therefore, while average time on site per user as well as page views for local sites such as news or government will mainly reflect the traffic generated by people within a country, popular sites such as Wikipedia and shopping sites included in the analysis (such as Amazon, Jumia and AliExpress) reflect global averages. worldbank.org/digitaldevelopment 25 Hinnosaar et al. (2019). 26 www.alexa.com.

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The relative use of the five foundational categories Popularity of government sites vary significantly among the six countries surveyed is presented in across countries. Surprisingly, particularly given Table 1 to highlight differences. These figures were the COVID-19 pandemic, health ministry web sites recorded in April 2020, in the midst of the global ranked very low except in Rwanda. This could due pandemic, which precipitated a surge in online to the availability and popularity of other options activity in each of these countries. For the news such as the Facebook page of Ministries of Health category, the top news site in each country was or public health announcements disseminated over used, and as the table demonstrates, news sites WhatsApp. Wikipedia ranked relatively high in ranked among the top ten popular sites in all of most of the countries as did online shopping sites. the countries examined except for Bangladesh.

TABLE 1: Site ranking of foundational online activities, April 2020

COUNTRY NEWS GOVERNMENT HEALTH EDUCATION SHOPPING

BANGLADESH 18 53 389 9 13

HONDURAS 6 37 708 7 14

MOROCCO 4 31 494 25 11

PHILIPPES 3 239 146 15 8

RWANDA 2 14 30 17 25

UKRAINE 5 32 259 17 7

Source: Alexa (https://www.alexa.com); Extracted April 2020

The identified website for each category of public service websites of Rwanda and Honduras foundational online activity, as well as average tend to spend more time browsing compared to time users spend on sites and daily page views are those visiting other similar types of government shown in Table 2. Users visiting the government sites. For instance, in Rwanda, users spent over 20 worldbank.org/digitaldevelopment

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minutes on the government web site compared to Time spent on online shopping in Ukraine is less than two minutes in the Philippines. Acquiring slightly higher than the other countries. This may health information as well as news are shown as be due to the fact that the most popular Ukrainian important online activities in Rwanda in terms of shopping site is a peer-to-peer platform rather than the amount of time spent on them per user. Except the business to consumer platforms in the other for Ukraine, shopping consumes approximately the countries surveyed in this report. same amount of time regardless of the platform.

TABLE 2: Average time spent daily on foundational online activities (minutes and number of page views)

NEWS GOVERNMENT HEALTH EDUCATION* SHOPPING

TIME VIEWS SITE TIME VIEWS SITE TIME VIEWS SITE TIME VIEWS TIME VIEWS SITE

BANGLADESH 6:31 3.3 Bdnews24.com 2:08 2.5 portal.gov.bd 4:53 3.8 dghs.gov.bd 3:52 2.92 9:10 8.36 Amazon

HONDURAS 2:58 1.6 tiempo.hn 19:43 9.8 se.gob.hn 1:34 2 salub.gob.hn 3:52 2.92 9:10 8.36 Amazon

MOROCCO 8:11 3.3 .com 7:33 3.2 men.gov.ma 2:45 2.2 sante.gov.ma 3:52 2.92 10:33 6:56 Jumia

PHILIPPINES 2:55 1.9 abs.cbn.com 1:33 1.2 gov.ph 3:54 2.03 doh.gov.ph 3:52 2.92 9:10 8.36 Amazon

RWANDA 11:30 8.7 igihe.com 21:04 7 irembo.gov.rw 13:57 6.2 moh.gov.rw 3:52 2.92 9:32 8.77 Aliexpress

UKRAINE 3:28 1.8 Ukr.net 4:35 2.8 rada.gov.ua 2:40 2 moz.gov.ua 3:52 2.92 14:21 9.41 olx.ua

Source: Alexa. Note: * Wikipedia used as the education website for all countries. Data extracted in April, 2020

The simple average daily time spent on the the government web site. The total daily average foundational online activities among the six page views are used to estimate the amount of data countries was 34.5 minutes, as shown in Table 3. needed, as demonstrated at the bottom of Table 3. The Philippines had the lowest total daily time Converting the page views to data consumed results spent at 21.5 minutes while Rwanda had the highest in 660 MB per month.27 due to an above average amount of time spent on

27 https://www3.bellmts.ca/mts/support/internet/high+speed/internet+data+usage+calculator

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TABLE 3: Time spent on all foundational online activities

COUNTRY TOTAL DAILY TIME (MINUTES) PAGE VIEWS

BANGLADESH 26.6 20.88

HONDURAS 37.3 24.68

MOROCCO 32.9 18.18

PHILIPPINES 21.5 16.41

RWANDA 60.0 33.59

UKRAINE 28.9 18.93

Average 34.5 22.11

Total MB Per Month 660

worldbank.org/digitaldevelopment

worldbank.org/digitaldevelopment

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DATA CONSUMPTION FOR RECREATIONAL ONLINE ACTIVITIES

Besides the foundational online activities, people also spend a significant amount of online time for social media and recreation. There is naturally some complementarity between social uses of the internet and other more foundational uses, as being able to socialize with others online can be a first step towards more foundational uses such as education, news and government services. Facebook and YouTube are among the top sites in all six countries examined in this study. According to Alexa data, users spend on average 19 minutes on Facebook, 13 minutes on Twitter and 9 minutes on Instagram. Previous studies have also found that half of the individuals surveyed in Africa spend an average of 1 to 6 hours daily on social media sites.28

Based on the survey results as well as Alexa data, the analysis applied here assumes one hour spent on social media every day. For other entertainment activities, the average time users spend on YouTube is used as a proxy in the analysis for this sub- category given the site’s global popularity. Alexa data shows that on average individuals spend around 15:23 mins per day on YouTube. This at 178MB daily, equivalent to slightly more than translates to approximately 88MB per day, given 5GB per month. Adding this amount (5.2 GB) to one hour of streaming video consumes 353MB.29 In the foundational amount (660 MB) results in a sum, data consumption to support social media and minimum monthly data consumption estimate of other online entertainment activities is estimated almost 6GB per month.

28 LIRNEasia (2018). 29 https://www3.bellmts.ca/mts/support/internet/high+speed/internet+data+usage+calculator ; in addition, according to Business Insider, YouTube consumes 5.6MB/minute for the lowest quality bracket (360p resolution).

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AFFORDABILITY OF DATA PACKAGES

Monthly data consumption for the five foundational a larger proportion. This is estimated by adjusting activities is around half the A4AI target of 1GB. Even GNI per capita for the difference between average this lower consumption figure can pose affordability income and the income of the bottom 40%. For the challenges for poor segments of the population. bottom 40%, the amount spent exceeds 2% of per The cheapest 30-day data package in most of the capita income. While cheaper prices are available countries surveyed includes substantially more for data packages closer to 660 MB, such packages data than 660MB, as shown in Table 4. Although are typically only valid between 1-7 days. Hence the price is less than 2% of income in all the in most instances, a low-income consumer would countries reviewed except for Honduras, that is an have to carry out all their online activities over just average figure for the country. The poorest will pay 1-7 days a month.

TABLE 4: Price for 660 MB in developing countries surveyed

CHEAPEST 30-DAY DATA PACKAGE WITH AT LEAST 660 MB CHEAPEST PACKAGE WITH AT LEAST 660 MB

% GNI pc % GNI pc Validity % GNI pc % GNI pc COUNTRY Amount MB Price (US$) Amount MB Price (US$) (average) (Bottom 40) (days) (average) (Bottom 40)

BANGLADESH 1,000 $2.25 1.4% 2.6% 1,000 $ 0.92 7 0.57% 0.64%

HONDURAS 39,000 $ 18.36 9.2% 33.5% 750 $ 1.02 1 0.51% 1.86%

MOROCCO 5,000 $ 5.20 2.0% 1,000 $ 1.04 3 0.39%

PHILIPPINES 4,000 $ 5.77 1.8% 4.8% 1,000 $ 0.97 3 0.30% 0.80%

RWANDA 800 $ 1.11 1.6% 4.2% 800 $ 1.11 30 1.6% 4.2%

UKRAINE 3,000 $ 4.84 1.7% 2.8% 3,000 $ 4.84 30 1.72% 2.82%

Note: GNI per capita estimate for bottom 40% derived from World Bank (2018). Prices at September 2020 (2019 average annual exchange rate used for conversion). Data for bottom 40% not available for Morocco. Source: GNI World Bank (exchange rates, GNI per capita), Grameenphone (Bangladesh), Claro (Honduras), Maroc Telecom (Morocco), Globe (Philippines), MTN (Rwanda) and Kyivstar (Ukraine)

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Including recreational activities in minimum data per capita and much higher for those in the bottom consumption dramatically affects affordability due 40%. Shorter validity packages can be purchased to the increased data required, as shown in Table 5. making it more affordable, but this comes with the Except for the Ukraine, the monthly price for at least inconvenience of having to consume all the data in 6 GB of data is more than 2% of the average GNI a short period of time.

TABLE 5: Price for 6 GB in developing countries surveyed

CHEAPEST 30-DAY DATA PACKAGE WITH AT LEAST 6 GB CHEAPEST PACKAGE WITH AT LEAST 6 GB

% GNI pc % GNI pc Validity % GNI pc % GNI pc COUNTRY Amount GB Price (US$) Amount GB Price (US$) (average) (Bottom 40) (days) (average) (Bottom 40)

BANGLADESH 10 $ 4.75 2.9% 5.6% 8 $ 1.76 7 1.09% 2.07%

HONDURAS 20 $ 20.40 10.2% 37.2% unlimited $ 1.63 1 0.82% 2.98%

MOROCCO 10 $ 10.40 3.9% 6 $ 6.24 21 2.35%

PHILIPPINES 10 $ 19.29 6.0% 16.1% 6 $ 2.90 9 0.90% 2.41%

RWANDA 7 $ 22.24 32.5% 83.1% 6 $ 17.79 14 26.03% 66.47%

UKRAINE 6 $ 4.84 1.7% 2.8% 6 $ 4.84 30 1.72% 2.82%

Note: GNI per capita estimate for bottom 40 derived from World Bank 2018. Prices at September 2020 (2019 average annual exchange rate used for conversion). Data for bottom 40% not available for Morocco. Source: World Bank (exchange rates, GNI per capita), Grameenphone (Bangladesh), Claro (Honduras), Maroc Telecom (Morocco), Globe (Philippines), MTN (Rwanda) and Kyivstar (Ukraine).

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THE IMPACT OF COVID-19 ON MINIMUM DATA CONSUMPTION

The COVID-19 pandemic triggered widespread Zoom was among the top twenty sites in the other use of video conferencing for work, learning low- and middle-income countries analyzed in and healthcare among others. Some predict that this study. One hour of a Zoom session consumes telework and distance education will continue to 500 MB of data.32 However one hour of Zoom use some degree after the pandemic.30 In April 2020 per day in these countries would be unaffordable about 300 million people around the world were for most with the price for 10,000 MB per month using Zoom, one of many videoconferencing exceeding the yardstick of 2% of income in all platforms.31 Except for Morocco and the Ukraine, countries.

Of course, not everybody needs to use video conferencing platforms. People with jobs that cannot be carried out online, or those without children in need of remote learning rely less on video conferencing. Even for those with children, in some developing countries, educational programs were and are continuing to be offered on television or radio due to limited computer and Internet access in homes. Nevertheless, the COVID-19 effect demonstrates that people who can work from home or have children where online education is available require more data to make use of video conferencing. This was true even before the pandemic, highlighting the difficulty in estimating a one size fits all minimum data consumption amount.

Strongly relevant to the higher amount of data needed due to COVID-19, A4AI released a new worldbank.org/digitaldevelopment “meaningful connectivity” target that calls for a broadband connection at home, or place of work or

30 Tonga Statistics Department and UNICEF MICS (2020). 31 See “Facing unprecedented growth, Zoom turns to Oracle Cloud Infrastructure to support millions of users” at: https://www.oracle.com/customers/zoom.html 32 See “How much DATA you are using?” at: https://schools.saisd.net/upload/page/11211/docs/Data%20Usage.pdf

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study with unlimited data access.33 This aspirational unlimited Internet access makes them relevant goal will be difficult to attain in low- and middle- again. Governments may also consider subsidizing income countries, as the amount of data required is data use for the poorest through social tariffs not affordable for many in the countries analyzed in similar to food allowance or school fee schemes.37 this study. Many people in low- and middle-income During the COVID-19 pandemic, a number of countries work in the informal sector with unlikely governments have urged access to the internet through work. A place of operators to raise data allowances or provide free study is also problematic; for example, in Latin Wi-Fi and some consumers are calling for this to be America and the Caribbean one third of secondary the new norm.38 For instance, in Germany, Vodafone schools and around two thirds of primary schools is providing zero-rating services for customers were unconnected to the internet in 2016; in South to access digital education web pages. Major Asia, more than half of secondary schools were Irish companies also signed unconnected; and in sub-Saharan Africa, three a COVID-19 agreement with the government quarters of secondary schools were unconnected.34 committing to enable zero-rating of healthcare Even in countries where school connectivity is high, resource websites identified by the government there are pockets of depravation without internet for all customers. Another innovative scheme to or where equipment is obsolete.35 increase access to data is through the donation of excess data, as one major mobile operator in One way of increasing access to the internet Australia enables for its customers. Under this is through public venues such as libraries and scheme, over 200,000 customers donated more community centers. Telecenters – public locations than 5.8 million GB data to some 13,000 young with shared internet access – have been around Australians in the period between April 2019 for many years but their use has declined with and March 2020, indicating its popularity with the rapid growth of mobile internet.36 The need for consumers.39

33 “Covid-19 shows we need more than basic internet access — we need meaningful connectivity” at: https://a4ai.org/covid-19-shows-we-need-more-than- basic-internet-access-we-need-meaningful-connectivity/ 34 “Schools with access to the internet for pedagogical purposes, by education level (%)” extracted from the Global SDG Indicators Database at: https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/indicators/database/ 35 Cisco (2015). 36 Clark (2014). 37 https://a4ai.org/studies/lowering-prices-for-marginalised-users/ 38 In the UK the government requested that telecommunication operators provide generous data allowances for vulnerable mobile-only customers for remote medical consultations. https://www.gov.uk/government/news/industry-and-government-joint-statement-on-telecommunications-support-for-the-nhs 39 Optus (2020).

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CONCEPTUALIZING DATA AS AN ESSENTIAL NEED WITHIN THE DEVELOPMENT AGENDA

In the digital economy, data should be recognized demonstrated that the cheapest 30-day data package as an essential entitlement enabling human beings in most of the countries examined offers an amount to meet their basic needs. Consumption of data of data substantially more than 660 MB. However, means engaging in foundational online activities, the price of such data packages exceeds more than such as online education which complements in- 2% of income for the bottom 40% population. class education, accessing healthcare information The COVID-19 pandemic has also increased the or engaging with public services and government demand for data by triggering widespread use of resources online. Information has always reflected video conferencing for work, learning and health a basic human need. Traditionally people relied on among others. One hour of video conferencing can printed newspapers, radio or television broadcasts consume 500 MB of data. This calls for unlimited to obtain information. But in the digital age getting data access to realize meaningful connectivity. information online has become more important Some measures include promoting access to the in order to obtain the most up to date and diverse internet through public venues and subsidizing sources of information, often at a lower cost than foundational data use for the poorest through acquiring offline. partnerships with private sector players.

This study has identified accessing public services, news, health information, learning and online 40 Given that work-related online ac- shopping as five important foundational online tivities are done at workplace rather 40 than relying on individual’s mobile activities. Using data from Bangladesh, Honduras, data plan, it is not included in the calculation of the minimum data Morocco, Philippines, Rwanda and the Ukraine, consumption in this note. 660 MB of data are estimated to be needed per month for users to carry out these activities. To ensure better life quality, the list of important online activities can be expanded to include access to social media and video streaming, which increases the estimated minimum amount of data needed to around 6 GB per month. Further, this report has

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It is critical for the development agenda that online activities, which should also reflect future the minimum data thresholds estimated in this developments in fixed-internet infrastructure study are monitored and updated periodically to across the developing world. Future research should reflect technological advances such as data-saving also build upon the findings presented in this mechanisms within devices and platforms or the report by expanding the list of countries surveyed, development of more data-intensive apps, which as well as exploring more granular-level minimum will undoubtedly flourish alongside the rapid data estimates for different user segments, with deployment of high-capacity 5G mobile networks. an eye towards minimizing the digital divide both Future research should therefor explore and between countries and within countries. revise the estimated data needs for foundational

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This article was co-authored byRong Chen, Economist at The World Bank; andMichael Minges, Lead Consultant at ictDATA.org and Digital Benchmark Research Lead at the World Benchmarking Alliance.

The authors would like to thank the following colleagues from across the World Bank Group for their review and suggestions: Vivien Foster, Chief Economist for the Infrastructure Vice-Presidency; Rami Amin, Consultant at The World Bank; and Davide Strusani, Principal Sector Economist at the International Finance Corporation (IFC).

The authors would also like to thank the following external peer reviewers for their comments:Sonia Jorge, Executive Director at the Alliance for Affordable Internet (A4AI); andDaniel Vertesy, Economist at the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). worldbank.org/digitaldevelopment

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Hinnosaar, Marit, Toomas Hinnosaar, Michael Kummer and Olga Slivko. 2019. “Wikipedia Matters.” Social Science Research Network (SSRN). (July 14). https://ssrn.com/abstract=3046400

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Information and Communication Technology Agency of Sri Lanka (ICTA). 2013. E Government Survey – Final Evaluation. https://www.icta.lk/icta-assets/uploads/2016/03/ICTA_eGov_FR_16-1-14.pdf.

International Telecommunication Union (ITU). 2019 “Facts and Figures: Measuring digital development.” (2019). ITU Publications, Geneva, Switzerland. https://www.itu.int/en/ITU-D/Statistics/Documents/facts/FactsFigures2019.pdf

LIRNEasia. 2018. AfterAccess: ICT access and use in Asia and the Global South. https://lirneasia.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/LIRNEasia-AfterAccess-Asia-Report.pdf

Myers, David G. 2000. “The Funds, Friends, and Faith of Happy People.” American Psychologist 55 (1): 56–67

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Optus. 2020. Sustainability Report 2020. Australia https://www.optus.com.au/content/dam/optus/documents/about-us/sustainability/reporting/2020/Optus-Sustainability-Report-FY2020.pdf

Pew Research Center. 2019. “For Local News, Americans Embrace Digital but Still Want Strong Community Connection” https://www.journalism.org/2019/03/26/nearly-as-many-americans-prefer-to-get-their-local-news-online-as-prefer-the-tv-set/

Reis, Harry T., W. Andrew Collins, and Ellen Berscheid. 2000. “The Relationship Context of Human Behavior and Development.” Psychological Bulletin 126 (6): 844–72

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Tonga Statistics Department and UNICEF. 2020. “The situation of children and their vulnerabilities to COVID-19 in Tonga.” https://mics.unicef.org/news_entries/166/TONGA-RELEASES-PRELIMINARY-MICS-RESULTS-AMIDST-COVID-19-PANDEMIC

United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE). 2017. “Guide on Poverty Measurement. https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/ramon/statmanuals/files/UNECE_Guide_on_Poverty_Measurement.pdf

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