Citi Institute

Amy Thompson, Alex Miller, Arthur Pineda, Pantelis Koutroumpis, Michael Rollins

About a third of the global population still does not use the internet,
with surveys suggesting that even awareness of the internet is not universal.

Yet, the internet now gives access to vital services around the world,
including healthcare and education, from which a substantial portion
of the world is excluded.

Citi Institute reports such as Stablecoins 2030 – Web3 to Wall Street and Real
Time – 24x7 Finance in an Always-on World outline the digitalization of financial
services for both businesses and individuals. This digitalization has given many
more people access to facilities such as bank accounts and payment services.
Bringing the last third of the population online is therefore a major opportunity to
catalyze global development, unlocking opportunities for the most underserved
to access basic services.

In this report, we highlight Oxford Martin School research, funded by Citi, which
shows that when telecoms infrastructure is shared between mobile network
operators rather than operated by individual telecommunication companies,
network quality improves and costs for consumers fall. At the same time, costs
for operators fall and return on investment tends to increase.

We therefore highlight the potential for this sharing of infrastructure to reduce
the investment required to close the remaining digital divide and achieve
the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) target of universal digital
connectivity – meaning access to the internet for all – by 2030.