Journal of Management Information System & E-commerce

Internet for All: The Barriers and the Solutions
Satya N Prattipati

Abstract
Can internet, reduce poverty? A few recent studies have shown that Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) can act as a facilitator in reducing poverty. Nearly 90% of the global population has access to mobile phones, and about one half of them have access to basic internet services through the mobile phones. Many governments in the developing world and some major IT companies have ambitious goals to connect the entire population to the internet. A recent McKinsey report found that over 4 billion people, are not connected to the internet. The paper examines the barriers to achieve universal connectivity. Among other things, illiteracy, lack of local language content and affordability are found to be the major hurdles in adopting the internet by the poor who form the bulk of the unconnected population. The paper concludes with some suggestions and policy guidelines to the governments and the industry, to expand internet connectivity to all.

Full Text: PDF     DOI: 10.15640/jmise.v2n1a1