Capacity-building Workshop on Information Society Measurements: Core Indicators, Statistics, and Data Collection 7-10 June 2005 UN House, Beirut, Lebanon

ITU World Telecommunication Indicators: Data Collection and Dissemination

[email protected] Market, Economics and Finance Unit (MEF) Telecommunication Development Bureau

Helping the world to communicate

o The ITU is the UN-specialized agency for

telecommunications: where governments and the private sector coordinate global telecom networks and services o Founded in 1865 o 189 Member States and over 700 private sector members

Overview o ITU’s role and mandate o ITU’s World Telecommunication Indicators • How? • What? • Why? • Challenges • Dissemination - demand for ITU data • Analysis/Reports o Arab States Trends and Markets o Conclusions

ITU mandate and role o As a United Nations agency, the ITU has an

obligation to produce statistics covering its sector. This is in line with other specialized agencies that publish statistics covering their respective field of operations. This forms part of the global statistical system of the UN.

o Inside ITU, Resolution No. 8 (Istanbul, 2002)

calls on the Director of the BDT “…to survey countries and produce world and regional reports, in particular on…world telecommunication developments.”

Market Economics and Finance Unit o

o

Information sharing: tracking the global diffusion of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) • Telecom/ICT Data collection and dissemination • Analysis • International cooperation The ITU, through its Indicators, is the main source of internationally comparable data on ICT/telecommunications

Mobile overtakes fixed! Telephone subscribers, world, millions Fixed

Mobile

In the Arab States, mobile overtook fixed in 2002, when the number of mobile subscribers grew to over 25 million (compared to just under 24 million fixed lines)

1'600 1'400 1'200 1'000 800 600 400 200 0

88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 00 01 02 03 Source: ITU

Data collection HOW?

WHAT?

o Two Telecommunication

o Telephone network

Indicator Questionnaires per year addressed to government agencies responsible from ICT/telecom or operator o Online research o Annual reports

o Mobile services o Traffic/Tariff o Quality of Service/Staff o Revenues & Investment o Broadcasting o Information Technology • PCs • Internet subscribers/users • Broadband/bandwidth

Data is entered into the World Telecommunication Indicators Database

Data storage

o Annual numerical data (indicators) o Industry/country operators’ information

(contact details, operators’ functions, short description, etc.) o Updated regularly to cope with the fast changing telecom/ICT environment • New indicators added • World Telecommunication Indicators Workshop (February 2005)

Challenges…

ITU Telecom Questionnaires - Reply rates (%)

75

Not every country returns/answers the questionnaire and reply rates are higher for short questionnaires!

56.2

54.6

61.2

57.8 46.5

50

11 out of 22 of the Arab States replied to the 2005 Short Questionnaire

25 0 2000

2001

2002

2003

Source: ITU World Telecommunication Indicators database

2004

…more challenges

Reply rates (%) for selected indicators, 2004 Not every country (that replies) answers every question!

100

77

82

75 35

50

27

33

25

26

24

Investment

Faults

0 Fixed Lines

Cellular subscribers

Total revenues

Mobile revenue

Staff

Source: ITU World Telecommunication Indicators database

…and more challenges

o More work to aggregate operators’ data

since liberalization and privatization

• More operators for different services • Operators’ data or annual reports sometimes not made available o Some information collected does not

meet the ITU definition and data are not always internationally comparable

…and the statistical divide

(2002/2003) Low Income Upper Middle

Lower Middle High Income

Low income Upper Middle

100%

100%

80%

80%

60%

60%

40%

40%

20%

20%

0%

0% Population

Internet users

Lower Middle High Income

Countries

Internet survey

Data dissemination o Yearbook of Statistics • Published annually for almost 3 decades • Covers 80 ICT/telecom indicators for almost 200 economies o World Telecommunication Indicators

Database

• Time series data for the years 1960, 1965, 1970 and annually from 1975-2003 • Covers 80 ICT/telecom indicators for almost 200 economies

Data dissemination – the CD-ROM

Data dissemination – other forms

o Free statistics published in our ICT

website for basic indicators, cellular subscribers, and information technology (http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/ict/statistics/)

o Requests made by users either by

phone, fax, or email

Analysis

• World Telecommunication Development Report • Regional Reports on ICT/telecom developments • Case Studies (www.itu.int/ict/cs)

WTDR 2003 • World Telecommunication Development Report • Contains overview of world telecom indicators • Highlights topics relevant to global issues • Last released December 2003 during WSIS (Geneva) • Topic: Measuring the information society • Includes the first release of Digital Access Index (DAI)

Digital Access Index o The DAI ranks 178

economies according to their ability to access ICTs o Based on 5 categories and 8 indicators o Classifies economies into: high, upper, medium, low

§ Broadband subscribers

QUALITY § International Internet bandwidth

§ Fixed telephone subscribers

INFRASTRUCTURE

USAGE § Internet users

§ Literacy

KNOWLEDGE § School enrolment

§ Mobile cellular subscriber s §Internet access price

AFFORDABILITY

Digital Access Index – Ranking

Rank

Economy

1 2 3 4 5 6 34 48

Sweden Denmark Iceland Korea (Rep.) Norway Netherlands

InfraAffordstructure ability

Knowledge

Quality

Usage

DAI

Qatar

0.94 0.89 0.89 0.74 0.84 0.78 0.66 0.46

0.99 0.99 0.99 0.99 0.99 0.99 0.99 0.99

0.99 0.99 0.96 0.96 0.99 0.99 0.73 0.81

0.64 0.66 0.50 0.74 0.55 0.61 0.39 0.37

0.67 0.60 0.76 0.65 0.59 0.60 0.43 0.14

0.847 0.828 0.820 0.817 0.793 0.792 0.64 0.55

60 67

Kuwait Lebanon

0.43 0.28

0.98 0.89

0.73 0.83

0.28 0.29

0.12 0.14

0.51 0.48

80

Jordan

0.22

0.82

0.86

0.27

0.07

0.45

82

Saudi Arabia

0.23

0.95

0.71

0.26

0.07

0.44

United Arab Emirates

Source: ITU World Telecommunication Indicators database Note: DAI ranks a total of 178 economies.

Regional Reports • Specifically prepared for regional Telecom events • Contains 3 parts: analytical overview, regional statistics, directory of telecommunication operators • Africa Telecom Indicators 2004 released during Telecom Africa 2004 • Latest is Asia Telecom Indicators 2004 released September 2004

The Arab States – market structure 2003 Competition in Basic Services (%)

90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0

85 Monopoly 48 52

77

Competition 51 49

54

49 51

46 23 15

ca Afri

IS as es fic i t C c i c a & r t a e bS ope a-P r i Am a r u s A A E

Source: ITU World Telecommunication Regulatory Database

rld Wo

Comparing evolution of fixed teledensity, 1993-2003 45 40

Europe

35

Americas

30 25 20 15

World AP

10

Arab States

5

Africa

0

1993

1995

1997

1999

2001

Source: ITU World Telecommunication Indicators database

2003

Comparing mobile growth rates, by region, 1993-2003 Compound annual growth rate (CAGR), %, 1998-2003

Arab States

68.6

Africa

65.1

Asia Pacific

39.4

Europe

35.2

Americas

25.5

0

20

40

Source: ITU World Telecommunication Indicators database

60

80

Internet user penetration, by region, 2003

Africa

1.4%

Arab States

3.7%

Asia-Pacific

7.0%

World

11.6%

Europe

24.7%

Americas

27.0% 0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

Source: ITU World Telecommunication Indicators database

25%

30%

DSL penetration, Arab Region, 2003

Bahrain

1.40% 1.00%

Lebanon

0.62%

UAE Kuwait

0.53% 0.44%

Qatar Jordan

0.09%

S. Arabia

0.04%

Sudan

0.03%

Tunisia

0.03%

Morocco

0.01%

Egypt

0.01% 0%

0%

0%

1%

1%

1%

1%

Source: ITU World Telecommunication Indicators database Note: Data on Lebanon refer to cable modem access

1%

2%

Other activities: International cooperation & coordination

• The Millennium Development Goals: ITU tracks target 18 of the MDGs • Main telephone lines & cellular subscribers, PC penetration , Internet users (for UN MDG database) • Prepares story-lines for UN Secretary General’s report on MDG

• “Partnership on Measuring ICT for Development” • Conferences/workshops/meetings • Case Studies

http://www.itu.int/ict http://www. itu.int/ict

Thank you for your attention!