Rural connectivity

Connecting everyone to digital services, particularly across Africa, is a significant challenge. Fixed and mobile services are increasing globally, with mobile broadband networks reaching 95% of the world’s population, but coverage in Africa lags behind at 83%.

Expanding coverage to rural networks remains a focus for us, with 25% of the EU population and 58% of the population in Sub-Saharan Africa living in rural areas. Expansion of rural networks can often be more challenging and have a lower return on investment due to lower population densities.

New approaches, partnerships, and a blend of technologies help us to overcome some of these barriers and deliver more universal coverage. In order to drive digital inclusion to the hardest-to-connect communities, this year we made good progress on our goal to increase 4G population coverage to an additional 80 million people in Sub-Saharan Africa (as part of the UN Partner2Connect digital coalition since March 2022). This targeted intervention includes four of the least-developed countries (‘LDCs’): Mozambique, Tanzania, Lesotho and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (‘DRC’), and will help to close a particular gap in internet usage between urban communities and rural communities. This year we have added 4G technology to an additional 1,429 sites across these countries, giving access to millions more people in Sub-Saharan Africa. In Europe, as well as in Africa, we are also increasing investment in rural areas, helping farmers and other rural small businesses overcome barriers to connectivity and digitisation.