Nearly half of the world population lacked access to the Internet in 2019, with most of these people living in the rural and remote areas of developing economies. Bridging the digital divide is a social and economic imperative considering that health, education, government and other services and applications rely on affordable, reliable and high-speed connectivity to serve communities around the world. The ITU Last-mile Connectivity Solutions Guide is designed to support governments in their role of regulating, funding and implementing universal access to connectivity. This guide provides ways of identifying the unconnected areas and selecting sustainable technical, financial and regulatory solutions to ensure affordability and accessibility to relevant connectivity services.
