A GLOBAL study of ICT competitiveness has ranked Asian economic powerhouse South Korea as the world’s most advanced ICT economy, with the Philippines way behind at 92nd place although it inched up by three notches from 95th spot in 2008.

The new figures released on Friday by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), an agency under the United Nations, showed that ICT uptake continues to accelerate worldwide, spurred by a steady fall in the price of telephone and broadband Internet services.

The new data, released in ITU’s flagship annual ICT report “Measuring the Information Society 2011,” also put Sweden, Iceland, Denmark, and Finland closely behind South Korea in ICT readiness.

A key feature of the report is the ICT Development Index (IDI), which ranked 152 countries according to their level of ICT access, use, and skills, and compares 2008 and 2010 scores.

Most countries at the top of the ranking are from Europe and Asia Pacific. Among Southeast Asian nations, Vietnam was ranked as the most dynamic country between 2008 and 2010, leaping from its previous 91st rank to 81st place.

All countries included in the IDI improved their scores this year, underlining the increasing pervasiveness of ICTs in today’s global information society.

“While the IDI leaders are all from the developed world, it is extremely encouraging to see that the most dynamic performers are developing countries,” said Hamadoun Touré, ITU secretary general.

“The ‘mobile miracle’ is putting ICT services within reach of even the most disadvantaged people and communities. Our challenge now is to replicate that success in broadband.”

The report showed that while ICT and income levels are closely related, getting the right public policy mix can drive faster take-up and a number of countries, including Australia, Japan, New Zealand, and South Korea have higher IDI levels than their income level would predict.



Mobile now ubiquitous
The spread of mobile networks in developing countries remains buoyant, with 20-percent growth in mobile subscriptions over the past year and no signs of a slowdown.

In developed countries, on the other hand, mobile cellular penetration has reached saturation, with average penetration now over 100 percent at end 2010, compared with 70 percent in developing countries. With more than five billion subscriptions and global population coverage of over 90 percent, mobile cellular is now de facto ubiquitous.

Mobile broadband (3G) services are also spreading quickly; by end-2010, 154 economies worldwide had launched 3G networks. Wireless broadband Internet access remains the strongest growth sector in developing countries, with mobile broadband growing by 160 percent between 2009 and 2010.

Countries registering the highest gains in the IDI “ICT use” sub-index are mostly those that have achieved a sizeable increase in mobile broadband subscriptions.

Conversely, the number of dial-up Internet subscriptions has been decreasing rapidly since 2007 and, based on current trends, the “death of dial-up” is expected to become a reality over the next few years.

Developing world still paying too much. Globally, telecommunication and Internet services are becoming more affordable.

According to the 2010 ICT Price Basket (IPB), which spans 165 economies and combines the average cost of fixed telephone, mobile cellular and fixed broadband Internet services, the price of ICT services dropped by 18 percent globally between 2008 and 2010, with the biggest decrease in fixed broadband Internet services, where average prices have come down by 52 percent.

All economies in the IPB top ten have high GNI per capita, and, with the exception of the United Arab Emirates, all are from Europe and Asia Pacific.

In developed countries, average prices for ICT services correspond to no more than 1.5 percent of monthly per capita income, compared with 17 percent in developing countries.

However, while broadband prices declined sharply worldwide, a high-speed Internet connection remains unaffordable in many low-income countries. For example, in Africa at end 2010, fixed broadband services cost on average the equivalent of 290 percent of monthly income, down from 650 percent in 2008. NEWSBYTES.PH