An analytics approach to exploring the link between ICT development and affordability

Abstract

Despite the rapid development in information and communications technologies (ICTs), the disparity in the ICT affordability, adoption, and utilization between developed and developing countries is still a subject of discussion among academics, researchers, and policy makers. Recent initiatives by the UN in developing a comprehensive ICT development index (IDI) and other accompanying data collection efforts have created a fertile ground for researchers in applying various methods to measure the magnitude of the digital divide and monitor how the disparity will evolve over time. This paper contributes towards this objective by extending existing research in the measurement and understanding of the global digital divide issue. Using unsupervised and supervised data mining techniques, we explore the countries' ICT development and affordability profiles, their evolution over time, and the link between ICT pricing and the ICT development stages of countries. Our analyses, based on ICT pricing and development data of 120 countries from 2008 to 2012, provide valuable insights into the global digital divide and the evolution of countries over time. In addition, it demonstrates the potential for predicting a country's future ICT development stage using its past or current ICT pricing information. This provides policy making opportunities for governments through continuous monitoring, reporting, and benchmarking of their ICT development and pricing information.