A lack of timely and comparable data on access to information and communications technologies (ICTs) is a major barrier to understanding the depth and causes of the digital divide or a gap in ICT access within and between richer and poorer countries, according to a new report by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU).

The World Telecommunication Development Report 2003 said that this was especially relevant in light of the upcoming World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) taking place here.

To help governments overcome the data divide, the report suggests a range of 23 'e-ITU indicators' that aim to provide a global norm for compiling comparable data to track the emerging global information society.

These indicators include, among others, percentage of households with electricity, radio, television, telephone, personal computers and Internet access; percentage of businesses with computers, Internet access and a website; student to computer ratio; percentage of schools with computer access; government offices with Internet access and a website; and Internet access tariff as percentage of per capita income.

As infrastructure had until recently been considered as the main obstacle to improving access to ICTs, existing indicators are often infrastructure-based, measuring such variables as the number of main telephone lines, and typically using telecommunication operators' data.

But there is growing evidence that other factors, such as affordability and knowledge, are an important part of the access picture. It is widely recognized that new indicators are needed and the new environment requires access and usage indicators disaggregated by socio-economic categories such as age, gender, income and location, the report stressed.

According to Michael Minges, lead author of the ITU report, "a close link exists between the digital divide and statistical divide." This statistical divide is as great as - or even greater than - the digital divide, the report says.

Sixty percent of all Internet user surveys are carried out in the world's wealthiest economies, while in the 59 poorest economies, not a single Internet user survey has been conducted.

The report says that although a number of ICT indicators already exist, they are often inappropriate for policy analysis. Few countries collect pragmatic indicators for measuring access, and even where they exist, international comparisons are often hampered by differences in definition and methodologies.

The report finds that while developed countries are racing ahead in information society measurement and tracking many factors including infrastructure, access and usage, most developing countries are still struggling to produce even basic indicators. The number of Internet users in most developing countries is usually based on "government guesstimates or vague estimates." When developing countries do conduct surveys, the report says, they are finding that the number of Internet users has often been vastly underestimated. An Internet survey carried out in Jamaica in January 2003, for example, found that there were almost 675,000 users in the country, five times more than the figure suggested by previous estimates.

Similar was the case in Peru, where a survey in the capital Lima in 2000 found that 20% of inhabitants had used the Internet at least once, more then four times as many users as estimated in the past. In Mexico, a recent Internet survey also found twice as many users than earlier estimates.

Surprising perhaps, the report notes, these findings suggest that the digital divide may not be as wide in some places as it is assumed, adding that this evidence indicates that proper surveys are the only effective means to measure the number of Internet users.

On the other hand, the report says that rich nations are over- surveyed with often conflicting results. For example, at least six surveys have been conducted in Spain producing figures ranging from over 50% to less than 20% of the population being online.

The report also cited the contrast in results of surveys conducted by Gallup for the European Union nations with those conducted by national statistical agencies. In every country but one, Gallup reports a higher Internet penetration than the national statistical agencies. This is significant, the report notes, because the EU has been using the Gallup data to analyse the state of Internet development in the region.

Access to ICTs has been included in the Millennium Development Goals and the report pinpointed Target 18 of Goal No.8: "In cooperation with the private sector make available the benefits of new technologies, especially information and communication." The report says that Target 18 is where most progress has been achieved over the 1990s. Fixed and mobile telephone networks (total teledensity) have grown more dramatically over the last decade across the developing world than in the entire period before that date. In East Asia, in particular, including China, the level of total teledensity in 2002 was more than 35 times higher than ten years earlier.

The draft action plan of the WSIS proposes ten goals focusing on ICT access targeted at achievement by 2015. The report suggests that many of these targets are, or could soon be met in terms of infrastructure availability. So, while most of the world's inhabitants will in theory have access to most ICTs in the future, their ability to use ICTs will depend largely on knowledge and affordability.

The report proposes several recommendations to overcome the statistical divide including countries improving their statistical landscape by conducting surveys, compiling statistics and making them readily available; government agencies involved in ICTs to work closely with national statistical agencies; and developed countries and multilateral agencies should assist developing nations to compile ICT indicators by providing technical assistance and material resources.

More importantly, the report concludes, good statistical practice is important, with transparency, clarity, timeliness and relevance being critical and surveys should be conducted on a regular basis, and at least annually.

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