Digital Opportunity Index

Michael MingesTMG, Inc.

2007 Partnership Forum on Measuring Information SocietyTaipei International Convention Center, 26 October 2007

Digital Opportunity Index History Results Comparability Recommendations

World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) Plan of Action

1. In cooperation with each country concerned,

develop and launch a composite ICT

Development (Digital Opportunity) Index.

Definitions Digital

“of or relating to data in the form of numerical digits”

Opportunity“a good chance for

advancement or progress”

Index“a number (as a ratio)

derived from a series of observations and used as an indicator or measure”

The whole population having easy access to Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) at affordable prices;

All homes equipped with ICT devices;

All citizens having mobile ICT devices; and

Everyone using broadband.

Source: www.webster.com

Problems with existing indexes Subjective Exclusive Poor choice of indicators Outdated / incorrect / missing data Opaque / unavailable methodology Limited analysis over time

Why an another ICT index?• Almost all existing ICT indices

concentrate primarily on developed economies

• Some do not use internationally comparable indicators and some have methodological snags or are susceptible to distortions due to the use of qualitative variables

• Most are not specifically targeted at measuring ICT access

• Wherever these indices use too many variables, transparency compromised

120

82

15

53

100

60

8

178

Variables Countries

Index 1Index 2Index 3DAI

Human Development Index “The human development index (HDI) is a

composite index that measures the average achievements in a country in three basic dimensions of human development:• a long and healthy life, as measured by life

expectancy at birth; • knowledge, as measured by the adult literacy rate and

the combined gross enrolment ratio for primary, secondary and tertiary schools; and

• a decent standard of living, as measured by gross domestic product (GDP) per capita in purchasing power parity (PPP) US dollars. The index is constructed from indicators that are available globally using a methodology that is simple and transparent.”

http://hdr.undp.org/hd

Partnership on Measuring ICT for Development Approved list of ICT

indicators

http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/ict/partnership/material/CoreICTIndicators.pdf

IndicatorsPercentage of population covered by mobile cellular telephony

Percentage of population covered by mobile cellular telephony

Internet access tariffs (20 hours per month) as a % of per capita income

Internet access tariffs (20 hours per month) as a % of per capita income

Mobile cellular tariffs (100 minutes of use per month) as a % of per capita income

Mobile cellular tariffs (OECD low user basket) as a % of per capita income

Proportion of households with a fixed line Proportion of households with a fixed line

Proportion of households with a computer Proportion of households with a computer

Proportion of households with Internet Proportion of households with Internet

Mobile cellular subscribers per 100 inhabitants

Mobile cellular subscribers per 100 inhabitants

Proportion of individuals who used the Internet

Proportion of individuals who used the Internet

Internet subscribers per 100 inhabitants Proportion of mobile Internet subscribers

Broadband Internet subscribers per 100 inhabitants

Proportion of broadband subscribers

Proportion of 3G subscribers

Core DOI

Categories

Opportunity

Infrastructure

Utilization

DOI structurePercentage of population covered by mobile cellular telephony

Internet access tariffs as a percentage of per capita income

Mobile cellular tariffs as a percentage of per capita income

Proportion of households with a fixed line telephone

Proportion of households with a computer

Proportion of households with Internet access at home

Mobile cellular subscribers per 100 inhabitants

Mobile Internet subscribers per 100 inhabitants

Proportion of individuals that used the Internet

Ratio of fixed broadband subscribers to total Internet subscribers

Ratio of mobile broadband subscribers to total mobile subscribers

Infrastructure

Opportunity

DIG

ITAL O

PP

OR

TUN

ITY IN

DE

X

Utilization

Indicators are averaged within categories, categories are averaged to get DOI.

DOI Timeline

Dec-03

Sep-04

Jun-05

May-06

May-07

DOI advantages Objective - Only statistical indicators Inclusive – 180 economies covered Standard indicators - “Partnership” core

ICT indicators Straightforward methodology - UNDP

HDI oriented, favorable to developing countries

Defendable goalposts Time series – 2000-2005

DOI similar to Taiwan’s “e-Life” indicators

Digital Opportunity Index (DOI), Taiwan, 2005

Mobile coverage (% population) 99Opportunity

(0.99)Internet tariff (% GDP per capita) 0.7Mobile tariff (% GDP per capita) 0.9

Households with fixed line (%) 98

Infrastructure (0.75)

Households with computer (%) 76DOI0.70

Mobile subscribers per 100 inhabitants 97Households with Internet access (%) 67Mobile Internet subscribers per 100 inhabitants 35

Internet users (% population) 42Utilization

(0.38)Broadband subscribers / All Internet subscribers 703G subscribers / All mobile subscribers 2

Taiwan, DOI, 2005Mobile pop. coverage

(%)

Internet, % income

Mobile, % income

Fixed,% homes

PC, % homes

Internet, % homesMobile per 100

Mobile Internet per 100

Internet users per 100

Broadband Internetratio

Mobile broadband ratio

Source: Adapted from DBAS, FIND, CHT, ITU.

42 countries>99%

Norway = 0.1%

Hong Kong, Switzerland = 0.2%

Korea = 100%

Korea = 33%

Taiwan, Singapore = 98%

Iceland = 89%

Iceland = 84%

Korea = 68%

Denmark = 70%“GPRS subscriptions”

Luxembourg = 14224 countries > 100

Taiwan, DOI over time

7

99

78

10

0.0

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5

0.6

0.7

0.8

0.9

1.0

2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006

World Rank

Digital Transformations in the Information Society, ITU, Geneva, 1-2 June 2006

Only fixedOnly mobile

Both mobile &

fixed

Percentage of population covered by mobile cellular telephony

Mobile cellular tariffs as a percentage of per capita

income

Mobile cellular subscribers per 100

inhabitants

(Mobile) Internet subscribers per 100

inhabitantsProportion of individuals

with Internet-enabled phone

Ratio of Broadband mobile subscribers to

mobile subscribers

Proportion of individuals that used the Internet

Internet access tariffs as a percentage of per

capita income

Proportion of households with a fixed line

telephone

Proportion of households with a computer

Proportion of households with Internet access at

home

Ratio of Broadband Internet subscribers to

Internet subscribers

Individual-mobile Household-fixed

Distance / time from fixed line

Mobile DOI

0.00

0.05

0.10

0.15

0.20

0.25

0.30In

done

sia

Phi

lippi

nes

S. A

frica

Indi

aC

hina

Thai

land

Mal

aysi

aR

ussi

aJa

pan

Bra

zil

Col

ombi

aA

ustri

aTa

iwan

Aus

tralia

Uni

ted

Kin

gdom

Kor

ea (R

ep.)

Hon

g K

ong

Sin

gapo

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enm

ark

Net

herla

nds

Sw

eden

Uni

ted

Sta

tes

Sw

itzer

land

Can

ada

0%10%20%30%40%50%60%70%80%90%100%

Fixed share (right scale)Mobile share (right scale)Mobile DOI (left scale)

DOI Infrastructure & access

core indicators

Non e-indices(e.g., Human Development

Index)

Future core indicators (e.g., education, government, health, etc.)

Core indicators on access and use of ICTs by households and

individuals

Core indicators on access and use of ICTs by

businesses

Modular

DOI extensions Gender Age Regions

DOI compared to other e-indices  DOI NRI EIU IOIKorea (Rep.) 1 19 16 22Japan 2 14 18 27Denmark 3 1 1 5Iceland 4 8 9Singapore 5 3 6 7Netherlands 6 6 8 4Taiwan 7 13 17 17Hong Kong 8 12 4 3Sweden 9 2 2 1UK 10 9 7 8Finland 11 4 10 19Norway 12 10 12 10Switzerland 16 7 5 6United States 20 3 2 13Australia 22 15 9 14

Infrastructure indicators & Asia Mobile per 100: Advanced Asian

economies have low prepaid %, lower SIM cards per 100 but just as high household and individual usage of cellular

International bandwidth: Not hubs likes US or Europe; more national content so less need for international bandwidth

Subjective data

812

23

82

155.0

5.2

5.4

5.6

5.8

6.0

6.2

6.4

Brazil India Mauritius Senegal South Africa

Eas

e of

obt

aini

ng p

hone

line

(7

=bes

t)

8

18

28

38

48

58

68

78

Num

ber o

f day

s fo

r obt

aini

ng

phon

e lin

e

Ease of obtaining phone line (7=best)Number of days for obtaining phone line

Source: WEF, World Bank.

Mobile InternetDefinitions

0.00.51.01.52.02.53.03.54.04.55.0

Mob

ileIn

tern

etac

cess

GPR

S +

WA

Psu

bscr

iber

s

WLA

N u

sers

Millions

Economy DefinitionKorea Users of providers mobile

Internet services

Japan Internet Provider Services of Mobile Telephone

Denmark GPRS subscriptions

Iceland Derived from households using mobile to access Internet

Singapore Estimate derived from mobile data traffic

Neth. Branded portal subscribers for 3 largest MNOs

Taiwan GPRS + WAP subscribers

Hong Kong

2.5G +3G subscribers

Sweden Active GPRS and UMTS subscriptions

United Kingdom

% of subscribers using non-SMS data services

Taiwan weakness in NRI E-government readiness index (World rank: 121) Residential telephone monthly subscription (115) E-participation index(109) Lowest cost of broadband (100) Business monthly telephone subscription (99) Monthly broadband subscription charge (90) Cost of cellular phone call (80) Business telephone connection charge (74) Residential telephone connection charges (71) Number of procedures to start a business (69)

Doing Business (World Bank) vs.Business Environment (EIU)

0

10

20

30

40

50

60Ta

iwan

Japa

n

New

Zeal

and

Net

herla

nds

Uni

ted

Stat

es

Kor

ea

Den

mar

k

Uni

ted

Kin

gdom

Hon

g K

ong,

Chi

na

Swed

en

Sing

apor

e

World BankEIU

Recommendations Modular approach with agreement on

different categories More attention to details of indicators Better quantification of non-numerical

factors Methodologies and historical trends

Contact

minges@tmgtelecom.com

www.tmgtelecom.com