{"id":855595,"date":"2026-09-21T15:58:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-21T15:58:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/855595\/"},"modified":"2026-09-21T15:58:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-21T15:58:10","slug":"africa-needs-broadband-power-expansion-to-bridge-internet-gap-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/855595\/","title":{"rendered":"Africa needs broadband, power expansion to bridge internet gap \u2014 report"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Africa can close its mobile internet usage gap if policymakers and companies collaborate to expand broadband and electricity infrastructure, make phones more affordable, and improve digital skills, a new report argued. <\/p>\n<p>It showed that 900 million Africans \u2014 about 60% of the population \u2014 live in areas where mobile internet access is available, but don\u2019t use it.<\/p>\n<p>Usage gaps in Niger, Rwanda, and Uganda are among the highest in the continent, but halving the gaps in Ethiopia, Nigeria, and DR Congo alone will bring <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/about-us\/regions\/africa\/gsma_resources\/advancing-digital-connectivity-in-africa\/\" class=\"_linkEmbed_1pt7l_31\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">170 million more Africans online<\/a>, according to Partnership for Digital Access in Africa, a non-profit aimed at driving up internet connectivity, and global telecom association GSMA. The report found sequencing solutions were key: While extending rural coverage should be the priority in some countries, investing in network facilities \u201cmay deliver only modest adoption gains where service providers and users lack reliable electricity to power infrastructure or charge devices,\u201d the report said.<\/p>\n<p><img src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/00ca4e2a5f823849f83324aa373ceb34899f97c7-1066x1230.jpg\"  alt=\"\" width=\"740\" height=\"853\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" fetchpriority=\"high\" class=\"_imageEmbed_glfao_40 _fullContentArea_glfao_44\" style=\"max-width:100%;color:transparent\"\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Africa can close its mobile internet usage gap if policymakers and companies collaborate to expand broadband and electricity&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":855596,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[174,74],"class_list":["post-855595","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-internet","tag-internet","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/855595","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=855595"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/855595\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/855596"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=855595"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=855595"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=855595"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}