When the United Nations declared access to the internet a human right in 2016, 只有47% 世界上有一半的人口都有联系. 五年后，这一比率已提高到 59%, or 4.60亿人. 但这意味着还有3个.3 欧元 people in the world without an internet connection, including more than a 欧元 仅仅是南亚的人.
其中的大多数 离线 是谁, 不足为奇的是在发展中国家和政府不稳定的国家. 在东非的厄立特里亚, 只有不到7%的人口可以上网, while only one in four has access to an internet connection in the region as a whole.
在拉丁美洲和加勒比地区， 三分之二 人口有互联网, 但只有不到一半的人可以使用高速或宽带连接. 该地区大多数国家的下载速度都低于 10 Mbps的. 这意味着用户无法下载高清电影, and downloading or streaming a movie in standard definition will take longer. Those that rely on platforms like Zoom to work or go to school may have glitchy two-way communications or need to turn off the video altogether.
在全球范围内，1.70亿儿童在家中无法上网. 与 有关问题的报告, UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore calls this “more than a digital gap – it’s a digital canyon.“由于COVID-19大流行导致学校关闭, 福尔说，这些孩子比以往任何时候都更加孤立, 并在教育上进一步落后. “Lack of internet access is costing the next generation their futures,” she said.
So, the need for broadband access in any environment is now more critical than ever worldwide.
落后
在大流行期间，全世界有更多儿童失学, UNESCO estimates that more than 100 million children will fall below the minimum proficiency level for reading.
Those in developing countries are finding it difficult to keep up with online school. 坎帕拉一位有三个学龄儿童的母亲, Uganda takes her learners to the local Wi-Fi café twice a week to get online. 家里有一台个人电脑, but there is no internet at home and the electricity supply is so unstable that they oftentimes can’t even charge the device. Her children say it’s very difficult to learn when they visit the café just twice a week. 她10岁的儿子立志成为一名IT工程师, 但他表示，他有限的上课时间不足以实现这一目标.
For kids in the Philippines, the struggle for students and teachers is very real. While 72% 人口有互联网, more than 90% of those users only have 2G mobile connections via their phones — barely enough to send much more than simple texts.
当疫情在菲律宾肆虐时，21岁的小学生 学校的老师 Gybel Agregado in Quezon City near Manila, knew her job was going to have to change. Just three of her students had access to internet capable of uploading photos of their assignments via their smartphones. 其他人则必须去热点下载或上传他们的作业. “It’s hard to see someone struggle, but have limited power to help,” she says.
Students say it’s tough to learn math by typing the answers into their family smartphone via text without seeing the teacher’s face. 老师们把打印好的作业送到学生家里, where they completed their work and returned assignments to a designated location.
撒哈拉以南非洲和拉丁美洲国家的儿童 度假胜地 到国有电视台或广播电台上课. 这些地区可以从宽带接入中获益最多. 在很多情况下, 由于成本问题，基础设施不可行, 安全, 不稳定的政府. 联合国称这种缺乏教育是“不平等的新面貌”.” Experts say access to broadband can create a waterfall effect in developing nations: Better education for students creates better jobs for adults and results in a more robust economy.
在家不上网
没有互联网的美国人数量也在下降, 但在数字鸿沟的另一边，也有相当多的人. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) estimates that more than 14 million people are without high-speed internet. 在这个在家工作和在家学习的时代, 即使是最基本的宽带标准也可能不够快, 尤其是当家里的几台设备同时在线时.
而联邦通信委员会的数字是没有服务的官方统计, 进行深入的研究 微软 suggests that as many as 162 million Americans don’t have high-speed internet. 这是一个巨大的差异，是由测量方式造成的. FCC考虑的是一个区域, 或者是“人口普查区”,拥有100%的宽带速度, 即使那个街区只有一户人家接入了网络. 在农村地区，一个人口普查区可能覆盖许多平方英里. 如果那个街区的杂货店或餐馆有网络连接, 没有一个房子是这样的, 它被认为对那个街区有全面的服务. 美国有超过1100万个人口普查区.S.因此，这些数字可能差别很大.
美国联邦通信委员会承认，它需要更精细的数据. “……太久了。, the FCC has lacked the data it needs about precisely where service is and is not throughout the country,联邦通信委员会主席杰西卡·罗森沃塞尔说.
那些最需要它的人却无法获得
不管实际数字是多少, experts agree they are too high and affect those most in need of broadband. 近四分之一生活在农村地区的人没有联网. 地面互联网提供商发现这太贵了, or just too difficult to lay fiber cable or erect cell towers in isolated areas or areas with rough terrain. Building expensive infrastructure to serve a small number of customers spread over large areas doesn’t make financial sense for those providers.
数字鸿沟在低收入人群中更为普遍. Forty-four percent of adults making less than $30,000 a year say they don’t have high-speed internet. 几乎一半的人没有电脑或平板电脑. 三分之一的人称他们没有智能手机, 还有那些做了的人, 三分之一的人依赖智能手机来满足他们的所有互联网需求. 这影响了远程工作和学习.
“你不能在手机上做作业，”他说 Traci莫里斯, executive director of the American Indian Policy Institute at Arizona State University. 她在美国国会听证会上作证.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee for Indigenous Peoples of the United States in April 2021. She pointed out that the Native population is among the least connected in America, 疫情加剧了数字鸿沟, 就像没有人能想象的那样. People died, kids couldn’t go to school, and people couldn’t get telehealth,” Morris said. 没有宽带接入，“你就无法在同一个世界里工作.”
卫生保健 during the pandemic has significantly increased the need for broadband access. The need was so great in rural North Carolina that a local health center set up a Wi-Fi hotspot in the parking lot, lending out recycled tablets to patients so they could access a physician from their car.
关键的连接
Much of the existing gaps in coverage can be addressed not by terrestrial technology but with internet via satellite. Viasat already covers vast areas of North America and Europe with its current satellite fleet, 更多的服务来自巴西和墨西哥的合作伙伴关系, 等. Recognizing that many people in developing countries may not be able to afford their own internet service, Viasat还创建了一个社区互联网解决方案, where internet access can be obtained on a per-use basis for small amounts of money.
All of this is planned to expand greatly when Viasat has its new ViaSat-3 global constellation in place, 预计在未来几年内. 设计上有 更多的容量 比我们现在的卫星加起来还要多, 预计将覆盖近全球, Viasat is poised to help countries around the world close the digital divide.