Stories from Abroad

Real Girls, Real Lives, Connected: A global study of girls' access and usage of mobile internet

Limited global research exists about girls’ and boys’ access to and use of mobile phones. For girls, access is much more diverse and colourful than simply whether they ‘have’ or ‘have not’ got a phone. Access is often transient, and diverse ownership, borrowership and sharing practices are flourishing. Boys are 1.5 times more likely to own a phone and 1.8 times more likely to own a smartphone. They're also more likely to use phones in more diverse and internet-enabled ways than girls. Girls are going to great lengths to gain access.

Enhancing the U.S.-Pacific Islands Partnership

President Joe Biden renewed our commitment to enhancing our partnership with the Pacific Islands, and the respective governments, to achieve our shared vision for a resilient Pacific region of peace, harmony, security, social inclusion, and prosperity, where individuals can reach their potential, the environment can thrive, and democracy can flourish. President Biden announced a new slate of activities, including plans to work with Congress to request and provide nearly $200 million in funding. The President announced plans to expand the U.S.

Britain makes internet safer, as Online Safety Bill finished and ready to become law

The Online Safety Bill passed its final Parliamentary debate and is now ready to become law. The bill expects social media platforms to:

Netflix and Korea’s SK Broadband End Lawsuits Over Fees, Technology

Netflix and SK Broadband, one of South Korea’s largest internet service providers, are ending all their lawsuits and are instead creating a strategic partnership to provide better entertainment experiences to Korean customers. The legal dispute began in 2020 over whether content providers that generate large amounts of traffic should pay “network usage fees” in addition to the bills paid by the household end users, or whether that would go against the principle of net neutrality and lead to higher costs for consumers. Netflix said that it could offer a technological solution to traffic volu

EU technology-specific industrial policy: The case of 5G and 6G.

The European Commission has recognized early on the disruptive potential of 5G and later 6G.

What drives broadband traffic?

Worldwide, there is an ongoing policy and regulatory push to make very high-speed broadband available as widely as possible. Underlying the policy interventions to support higher speeds is an implicit assumption that higher speeds will enable different (and socially valuable) uses. Extensive data on usage published by the UK telecommunications regulator finds that the linkage between broadband speeds and traffic per line—allowing for demographic factors—shows that higher speed has a weak relationship to traffic.

UK home broadband performance

Ofcom’s Communications Market Report 2023 shows that 86% of UK households take fixed broadband. This report summarises our research to understand broadband performance. It is based on two main sources of data: data collected by SamKnows from volunteers who connect a hardware monitoring unit to their broadband router; and data provided to Ofcom by the UK’s four largest broadband providers. Superfast products accounted for 93% of all home broadband lines.

Google has a new tool to outsmart authoritarian internet censorship

Google is launching new anti-censorship technology, Outline VPN, to increase access for internet users living under authoritarian regimes.

Connected Nations: Summer Update 2023

Key findings on mobile coverage and fixed broadband availability across the UK as of April and May 2023: 

UNESCO: Dependence on Tech Caused ‘Staggering’ Education Inequality

In early 2020, as the coronavirus spread, schools around the world abruptly halted in-person education. To many governments and parents, moving classes online seemed the obvious stopgap solution. In the United States, school districts scrambled to secure digital devices for students. Almost overnight, videoconferencing software like Zoom became the main platform teachers used to deliver real-time instruction to students at home.

Vodafone expands horizons with Amazon's Project Kuiper

Vodafone’s announcement that it has formed a partnership with Project Kuiper, Amazon’s low Earth orbit satellite (LEO) communications initiative, joins a growing list of operator tie-ups with satellite service providers to solve backhaul and rural connectivity challenges. Vodafone and its African Vodacom group plan to use Project Kuiper’s network to extend the reach of 4G and 5G services to more of their customers in Europe and Africa, serving areas that “may otherwi

The future of 5G and beyond: Leadership, deployment and European policies

Strategic rethinking of the policies that promote 5G development and deployment in Europe is needed, as they are crucial in determining the future impact of 5G and later 6G on the digital economy. Considering the current state of 5G deployment and insights that have emerged from the debate on 5G technological leadership, there is a need for a more effective and proactive policy from the European Union (EU) in this field.

Bringing the Internet to One of the Remotest Places on Earth

In 2022, Kathmandu-based Bikram Shrestha of the Nepal Internet Foundation was introduced to Chhepal Dorjee Sherpa, a trekking guide and entrepreneur who grew up in Khunde, Nepal. Bikram had prior experience with community networks, and together the two set out to build “the highest community network in the world.” At the time Khunde and Khumjung had patchy mobile phone coverage, with two dozen households paying about 1,000 rupees ($7.55) per month for an unreliable ADSL connection.

‘Without the telcos, there is no Netflix’: the battle between streamers and broadband

Telecommunications executives are looking at booming broadband use largely driven by video. Streaming video is one of – if not the main reason – for the explosion in data use across networks in the past 10 years, and platforms like Netflix are some of the main culprits. That amount of streaming across the globe is leading to big infrastructure costs for internet and mobile broadband providers, at a time when customers are used to large or unlimited downloads at a low price and are unwilling to pay much more.

Elon Musk's Shadow Rule

Elon Musk, became involved in the war in Ukraine soon after Russia invaded, in February 2022. Along with conventional assaults, the Kremlin was conducting cyberattacks against Ukraine’s digital infrastructure. Ukrainian officials and a loose coalition of expatriates in the tech sector, brainstorming in group chats on WhatsApp and Signal, found a potential solution: SpaceX, which manufactures a line of mobile Internet terminals called Starlink. The tripod-mounted dishes, each about the size of a computer display connect with a network of satellites.

No app, no entry: How the digital world is failing the non tech-savvy

The Good Things Foundation is the UK’s largest digital inclusion charity, seeking to help a million people to get across a tech divide that has deepened during the cost of living crisis.

How is Meta’s news ban affecting communications amid Canada wildfires?

Meta began blocking news from appearing across its platforms in Canada in August 2023 after prolonged negotiations with the government over Canada’s new Online News Act. As Canada grapples with its worst ever wildfire season, thousands of Canadians could now be affected by a shortage of news content ac

Elon Musk’s Unmatched Power in the Stars

The tech billionaire has become the dominant power in satellite internet technology. The ways he is wielding that influence are raising global alarms.

The Urgent Need to Reimagine Data Consent

2023’s upsurge in forced migration represents the intensification of an ongoing trend. As policymakers struggle to respond to the unfolding human catastrophe, they have increasingly turned to the possibilities offered by technology, and data in particular. Civil society and humanitarian organizations are attuned to the reality that these streams of people generate massive amounts of data that can, for instance, help channel aid to the neediest, predict disease outbreaks, and much more. Yet as is so often the case with technology, the potential for good is accompanied by certain risks.

Data Protection: European Commission adopts new adequacy decision for safe and trusted EU-US data flows

The European Commission adopted its adequacy decision for the EU-US Data Privacy Framework. The decision concludes that the US ensures an adequate level of protection – comparable to that of the EU– for personal data transferred from the EU to US companies under the new framework.

Fixing the Global Digital Divide and Digital Access Gap

The number of global internet users and the percentage of internet penetration continued to grow from 2021 to 2022 at 7% and 6% respectively.

Telecommunications companies have done a poor job in the 'fair contribution' debate

Europe's telecommunications chiefs love to moan about the data deluge that has swamped their networks, demanding payment – a "fair contribution" or "fair share" – from the Internet giants they hold mainly responsible. Yet none has ever presented any hard data to support the claims. Metrics show many of them fail to cover their capital costs.

European Parliament takes steps towards regulation of artificial intelligence

The European Parliament adopted its negotiating position on the Artificial Intelligence (AI) Act with 499 votes in favour, 28 against and 93 abstentions ahead of talks with EU member states on the final shape of the law.