What would it cost to connect the unconnected? Estimating global universal broadband infrastructure investment

TL;DR

This paper develops a high-resolution global model to estimate the investment needed to connect the remaining unconnected 3 billion people to the Internet, highlighting the substantial financial requirements for achieving universal broadband access.

Contribution

It presents the first high-resolution global assessment quantifying broadband investment needs at the sub-national level to meet SDG Goal 9.

Findings

Approximately $418 billion needed for universal broadband

Majority of investment required in emerging markets and low-income countries

Achieves 40-50 GB/month per user with 95% reliability

Abstract

Roughly 3 billion citizens remain offline, equating to approximately 40 percent of the global population. Therefore, providing Internet connectivity is an essential part of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) (Goal 9). In this paper a high-resolution global model is developed to evaluate the necessary investment requirements to achieve affordable universal broadband. The results indicate that approximately $418 billion needs to be mobilized to connect all unconnected citizens globally (targeting 40-50 GB/Month per user with 95 percent reliability). The bulk of additional investment is for emerging market economies (73 percent) and low-income developing countries (24 percent). To our knowledge, the paper contributes the first high-resolution global assessment which quantifies universal broadband investment at the sub-national level to achieve SDG Goal 9.