State of Mobile Internet Connectivity 2018

At the end of 2017, 3.3 billion people were connected to the mobile internet, representing an increase of almost 300 million compared to the previous year. However, more than 4 billion people remain offline and 1 billion of these are not covered by mobile broadband networks (the ‘coverage gap’). Some 3 billion people live within the footprint of a network but are not accessing mobile internet services (the ‘usage gap’), highlighting the importance of demand-side factors in connecting the unconnected.

The GSMA’s Mobile Connectivity Index supports the mobile industry’s commitment to connect everyone and everything to a better future. It measures the performance of 163 countries – representing 99% of the global population – against the key enablers of mobile internet adoption: infrastructure, affordability, consumer readiness, and content and services. This data can help the mobile industry and other stakeholders understand where to focus action to drive increased mobile internet adoption.

This report accompanies the 2018 update to the Index, which can be found at www.mobileconnectivityindex.com and now includes four years of data from 2014 to 2017. The index is built up through 35 indicators feeding into 12 dimensions that are aggregated to give a score for each of the four enablers. Scores fall within a range of 0–100. The scores for each of these enablers are rolled up into an overall Connectivity Index score, which represents how advanced a country’s mobile internet environment is. Users can view each country’s performance against the enablers and indicators in the index.

Explore the Mobile Connectivity Index.