Digital divide in Pakistan

Last updated

The digital divide in Pakistan refers to inequalities between individuals, households, and other groups of different demographic and socioeconomic levels in Pakistan in access to information and communication technologies (ICTs) and in the knowledge and skills needed to effectively use the information gained from connecting. [1]

Contents

Internet access

Pakistan is one of the South Asian countries that does have internet services, with 88% of the population having access to it. [2] Internet access in Pakistan began in the 1990s and has continued to grow over the past decades. In fact, Pakistan has about 61.34 million internet users in January 2021, an increase of 21% from the previous year. [3] However, according to data collected by the World Bank, Pakistan has an overall population of about 221 million people (2020). [4] In addition, Pakistan also has about 15 million people who access the internet from their mobile devices.

Pakistan has 5 broadband internet providers and 10 DSL. Broadband use through computers is the number one way that people access the internet in Pakistan, with more than 100 million people using it. [2] The second most popular way that people of Pakistan access the internet is through their cellular devices. Even though there are about 61.34 million internet users compared to a large population, Internet in Pakistan is ranked 20th in the world.

Cell phone coverage

Currently, Pakistan has four major cell phone providers. They are (in order from most to fewest subscribers): Jazz 69.24 million; Telenor 48.94 million; Zong 40.12 million; and Ufone 23.48 million. Special Communications Organization (SCOM) operates mainly in the regions of Azad Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan, and has 1.42 million subscribers. This adds up to a total of 183.20 million subscribers across the country. [5] According to the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority, the overall teledensity was 85% in 2021. [2] Recently in May 2017, the Pakistani government decided to lower tariffs and taxes on cellular services as well as on mobile phones. The reasons for this decision included years of pressure from the nation's top mobile operators and a World Bank report pointing out Pakistan's high taxing of telecom services in the region. [6]

Gender and caste

In rural Pakistan, cell service use is divided along gender lines. Karin Astrid Siegmann pointed out this disparity; 40 percent of female users have to ask permission from the male owners to make calls. Cell phones being in the hands of females is viewed unfavorably in Pakistani culture. According to one participant in the study, from the Muzzafargarh district in rural Pakistan, "Women don't even know how to dial a number." [7] Additionally, the percentage of women owning a cell phone is 36% compared to men at 78% overall. [8]

Besides gender, there is a distinct divide among castes. Newer castes rank much more highly on the Digital Access Index (DAI) than do the older castes. The same study compared two political parties. One political party, called the PTI (Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf), was composed of newer castes (Khan, Hashmi, Alvi, and Qureshi). The Muslim League is composed of older castes. The PTI outperformed the Pakistan Muslim League in number of foreign visitors to its web site, with a combined percentage of 12.7%, and in websites linking to it with 450, compared to the Muslim League's 168 (See Table 6 page 354). Ahsan Abdullah elaborates the important background of these findings: "Members of the new caste traditionally have not been farmers; for example, members of the Sheikh caste are traditionally traders, and members of the Syed caste traditionally hold religious offices, and hence they have to be better educated as compared to the old caste members. The old caste members, who are traditionally farmers, require tacit knowledge more than education to be successful. This observation is supported by the higher literacy rate in new castes as compared to the old caste members, with Pathan, Sheikh, and Syed being the top three educated castes among the 12 castes considered." [9]

Solutions

Besides Private efforts, Public efforts put forth by the Pakistani government would help bridge the digital divide. There is an ambitious undertaking called the Universal Services Fund which would aim to provide broadband coverage to the whole nation by 2018. [10]

Related Research Articles

Telecommunications in Ecuador include telephone, radio, television, and the Internet.

Telecommunications in Haiti Internet, radio, television, fixed and mobile telephones.

India's telecommunication network is the second largest in the world by number of telephone users with over 1.20 billion subscribers as of August 2024. It has one of the lowest call tariffs in the world enabled by multiple large-scale telecom operators and the ensuant hyper-competition between them. India has the world's second largest Internet user-base with over 949.21 million broadband internet subscribers as of August 2024.

Jordan has a highly developed communications infrastructure. Jordan's telecom infrastructure is growing at a very rapid pace and continually being updated and expanded. Communications in Jordan occur across many media, including telephone, radio, television, and internet.

The primary regulator of telecommunications in Malaysia is the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC). It issues licenses under the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998, the Postal Services Act 2012 and the Digital Signature Act 1997.

Telecommunications in Mongolia face unique challenges. As the least densely populated country in the world, with a significant portion of the population living a nomadic lifestyle, it has been difficult for many traditional information and communication technology (ICT) companies to make headway into Mongolian society. With almost half the population clustered in the capital of Ulaanbaatar, most landline technologies are deployed there. Wireless technologies have had greater success in rural areas.

Telecommunications in Pakistan describes the overall environment for the mobile telecommunications, telephone, and Internet markets in Pakistan.

Telecommunications in the Philippines are well-developed due to the presence of modern infrastructure facilities. The industry was deregulated in 1995 when President Fidel Ramos signed Republic Act No. 7925. This law opened the sector to more private players and improved the provision of telecom services are better and fairer rates, leading to the creation of many telecommunication service providers for mobile, fixed-line, Internet and other services.

Telecommunications in Slovenia encompass internet, telephone, radio, and television services.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Telecommunications in Bangladesh</span>

The telecom sector in Bangladesh is rapidly emerging. Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) is the regulatory authority for this sector, overseeing licensing, policy, etc.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Internet access</span> Individual connection to the Internet


Internet access is a facility or service that provides connectivity for a computer, a computer network, or other network device to the Internet, and for individuals or organizations to access or use applications such as email and the World Wide Web. Internet access is offered for sale by an international hierarchy of Internet service providers (ISPs) using various networking technologies. At the retail level, many organizations, including municipal entities, also provide cost-free access to the general public.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cellular network</span> Communication network

A cellular network or mobile network is a telecommunications network where the link to and from end nodes is wireless and the network is distributed over land areas called cells, each served by at least one fixed-location transceiver. These base stations provide the cell with the network coverage which can be used for transmission of voice, data, and other types of content. A cell typically uses a different set of frequencies from neighboring cells, to avoid interference and provide guaranteed service quality within each cell.

A landline is a telephone connection that uses metal wires from the owner's premises also referred to as: POTS, Twisted pair, telephone line or public switched telephone network (PSTN).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mobile broadband</span> Marketing term

Mobile broadband is the marketing term for wireless Internet access via mobile (cell) networks. Access to the network can be made through a portable modem, wireless modem, or a tablet/smartphone or other mobile device. The first wireless Internet access became available in 1991 as part of the second generation (2G) of mobile phone technology. Higher speeds became available in 2001 and 2006 as part of the third (3G) and fourth (4G) generations. In 2011, 90% of the world's population lived in areas with 2G coverage, while 45% lived in areas with 2G and 3G coverage. Mobile broadband uses the spectrum of 225 MHz to 3700 MHz.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Internet in India</span>

Internet in India began in 1986 and was initially available only to the educational and research community. General public access to the internet in India began on 15 August 1995. By 2023, India had more than 900 million Internet users. It is reported that in 2022 an average mobile Internet consumption in India was 19.5 GB per month and the mobile data usage per month rose from 4.5 exabytes in 2018 to 14.4 exabytes in 2022.

The Internet in Pakistan has been available since the early 1990s. Pakistan has over 140 million internet users, making it the 7th-largest population of internet users in the world.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mobile phone</span> Portable device to make telephone calls using a radio link

A mobile phone or cell phone is a portable telephone that can make and receive calls over a radio frequency link while the user is moving within a telephone service area, as opposed to a fixed-location phone. The radio frequency link establishes a connection to the switching systems of a mobile phone operator, which provides access to the public switched telephone network (PSTN). Modern mobile telephone services use a cellular network architecture, and therefore mobile telephones are called cellphones in North America. In addition to telephony, digital mobile phones support a variety of other services, such as text messaging, multimedia messaging, email, Internet access, short-range wireless communications, satellite access, business applications, payments, multimedia playback and streaming, digital photography, and video games. Mobile phones offering only basic capabilities are known as feature phones ; mobile phones that offer greatly advanced computing capabilities are referred to as smartphones.

The mobile phone network operator industry in Pakistan is a growing industry. According to figures from the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA), there were 152 million mobile 'phone subscribers' in Pakistan in March 2019.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Digital divide by continent, area and country</span>

The digital divide is an economic and social inequality with regard to access to, use of, or impact of information and communication technologies (ICT). Factors causing the divide can vary depending on the country and culture, as can the potential solutions for minimizing or closing the divide.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Digital divide in Thailand</span> Overview of the role of the digital divide in Thailand

The digital divide in Thailand refers to the economic, educational, and social inequalities between the Thai people who have access to information and communications technology (ICT) and those who do not. Thailand is a developing country within Southeast Asia, and is currently confronted with this problem. There are a number of factors that determine the digital divide within a country, including income, choice of technologies and socioeconomic factors. ICT development and mobile penetration are strongly correlated with economic growth and social benefits.

References

  1. ↑ Norris, P. 2001. Digital divide: Civic engagement, information poverty and the Internet world- wide. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge Univ. Press.
  2. 1 2 3 "Pakistan has more than 181 million mobile subscribers: PTA". www.geo.tv. Retrieved 2022-04-22.
  3. ↑ "Digital in Pakistan: All the Statistics You Need in 2021". DataReportal – Global Digital Insights. Retrieved 2022-04-22.
  4. ↑ "Population, total - Pakistan | Data". data.worldbank.org. Retrieved 2022-04-22.
  5. ↑ Ali, Kalbe (2021-05-09). "Cellular subscribers in Pakistan cross 183m mark in March". DAWN.COM. Retrieved 2022-04-22.
  6. ↑ "Pakistan to cut taxes on mobile services, handsets - Mobile World Live". Mobile World Live. 2017-05-29. Retrieved 2017-12-03.
  7. ↑ "The Gender Digital Divide in Rural Pakistan: How wide is it & how to bridge it?" (PDF).
  8. ↑ "Gallup Pakistan History Project's Weekend Read 42: Mobile Phone Usage and Access in Pakistan: An Analysis of Trends in 2015 and 2014" (PDF).
  9. ↑ Abdullah, Ahsan (2015-08-08). "Digital Divide and Caste in Rural Pakistan". The Information Society. 31 (4): 346–356. doi:10.1080/01972243.2015.1040936. ISSN   0197-2243.
  10. ↑ "National Perspectives on bridging the Digital Divide – Permanent Mission of Pakistan to the WTO" (PDF).
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.