It’s been pretty clear that the digital divide that is present across Southeast Asian economies require a comprehensive approach to tackle this issue; case in point — EdgePoint Infrastructure (EdgePoint), a regional telecom infrastructure developer, reiterated how critical policy reforms are necessary to directly address the current digital divide and all related challenges.
EdgePoint made this point in its latest whitepaper — “An Infrastructure-Based Approach to Advance Digital Equity in South-East Asia” — where the focus specifically on the digital divide for this region. It primarily identifies connectivity challenges from the perspective of an infrastructure provider for Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines, and also dives into how these gaps can be addressed.
Key findings include:
- Even with 76% of the Malaysian population being reported as mobile users, only 66% have access to mobile Internet
- Indonesia has a reported 56% population penetration for mobile devices, but only 47% are connected to the Internet
- The Philippines only has 54% penetration of its population for mobile devices and an even lower 42% for mobile Internet access
For EdgePoint, it is clear that there is a significant gap with overall network coverage and, as such, there is an urgent need to deploy more infrastructure to ensure coverage for mobile connectivity can be widened further. Notably, the findings from this whitepaper widely differs with other independent and publicly-funded findings.
“EdgePoint unveiled these findings to catalyse meaningful conversations on digital equity. (After all,) robust and shareable telecommunications infrastructure is the foundation of expanding connectivity to underserved areas and ensuring seamless connectivity in highly dense areas. We need to drive digital inclusion as one regional community and make connectivity accessible for everyone in ASEAN, ensuring everyone (can) benefit from a digital world, technologically, economically, and socially. As a trusted partner to mobile network operators (MNOs), telecom organisations, and regulators, EdgePoint hopes this whitepaper (will) inspire industry stakeholders and policymakers to start these important conversations (as part of their efforts to) achieve universal connectivity,” said Suresh Sidhu, CEO and Founder, EdgePoint.
Other key findings from the report are:
- Percentage of the population with no 4G coverage in several the Philippines (5%), Indonesia (5%), and Malaysia (3%)
- These countries have very high ratios of population per tower, well above developed market norms, indicating that there are also likely to be under-served populations as well
- Several factors contributing to poor connectivity generally are thin 4G coverage outside of major population centres and the absence of end-to-end enabling infrastructure, such as backhaul
This being a whitepaper, EdgePoint also included some action-points to consider. This mostly focused on how policy reforms for the digital economy must be inclusive-first and be fully-focused on maximum efficiency. Some of the key points EdgePoint put forward are how disbursement of funds for universal access to mobile broadband are all about maximising parity and creating sustainable approaches for projects; conduct infrastructure mapping that focuses on improving information sharing; and developing initiatives that target essential facilities and backhaul infrastructure for rural and under-served areas.
In the case of Malaysia, EdgePoint went further to outline three additional recommendations:
- Expedite process of building and deploying communciations infrastructure
- Easing access to right-of-way in Malaysia to build these necessary towers
- Boost efforts to deploy solutions and services that drive up access for mobile broadband in rural areas
“Introducing new approaches is key to ensuring no country is left behind in this fast-changing world. Adopting new ways of thinking and creating strong public-private partnerships will help accelerate change,” added Suresh.
More information about the whitepaper can be found here.