The UN says the digital divide is narrowing, but Murali Shanmugavelan tells us to think twice about leaving the job to telecoms industry giants.

When I grew up in Madurai, the second largest city in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, there was only one private telephone line in a street of about 100 families. It took seven years for my father to get a phone thanks to a long waiting list and inadequate infrastructure. Today my parents have one landline and three mobile phones in a household of seven. India is now the world’s third largest telecoms market with more than 250 million telephones for a population of 1.1 billion.

Over the last decade many developing countries have witnessed a similar expansion. Telephones, computers, the internet, and satellite have connected millions of people who previously had little contact with the outside world. The number of mobile phone connections has overtaken fixed lines, and the trend is set to continue.

Private telecom firms have played a pivotal role by reducing calling costs and revamping payment packages. The invention of ‘pay-as-you-go’, which allows those without a credit history to own a mobile telephone, has given people with few means a chance to take part in the information revolution.

A recent report by the consultancy firm Intelecon predicts that 90 per cent of the global market will have access to a mobile phone operator by 2010. However, between two and five per cent of the world’s population (120 to 300 million people) is expected to be too unprofitable to benefit from these services. This digital underclass is likely to be concentrated in the world’s poorest countries.

Many of us are staunch advocates of the positive role ICTs can play in human development. But with this statement comes a whole load of assumptions. For example, access to an affordable communications infrastructure does not happen without electricity.

On this score, Africa fails abysmally. A recent article in The Economist states that “power shortages have become one of the biggest brakes on development [in Africa]”. The continent is home to over a sixth of the world’s population, but generates only four per cent of its electricity.

In response to this energy deficit, the World Bank recently set up the Lighting Africa initiative. This aims to provide “up to 250 million people in sub-Saharan Africa with access to non-fossil fuel based, low cost, safe, and reliable lighting products with associated basic energy services by the year 2030”. We must wait and see whether it succeeds.

But it’s not just lighting that relies on electricity. Open politics, freedom of expression, equitable health and education – none of these can be achieved without the development of adequate infrastructure, including electricity.