Measuring the Information Society Report 2017

The 2017 edition of the Measuring the Information Society Report was launched during the World Telecommunication/ICT Indicators Symposium (WTIS) 2017, in Hammamet, Tunisia. In it, all related Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Development was produced, in which countries were ranked as based on 3 ICT’s criteria that are “Readiness”, “Use”, and “Capabilities”.

Over the years, this report has generally been accepted as a reliable snapshot of the current ICT development situation in the world and this year’s confirmed that parallel advances in the Internet of Things, big data analytics, cloud computing and artificial intelligence have concurrently enabled innovations that not only affected but will continue to impact business, government, and society at an ever-increased speed in all domains of human activities with opportunities, challenges but also some implications.  Countries especially those lagging behind such as the above mentioned above will have to create and / or improve conditions to support the next-generation networks and service infrastructures. The first three places are held by Iceland, South Korea and Switzerland in this descending order. A Regional Ranking was also proposed for Africa, the Americas, Asia & Pacific, CIS and Europe. As far as the MENA countries are concerned, it is under the label of the Arab States, that it is to be found. The first place was given to Bahrain at 31^st, followed by Qatar at 39^th, the United Arab Emirates at 40^th and Saudi Arabia at 54^th. Lebanon comes at 64^th and Oman at 62^nd. The North African countries of Tunisia, Morocco and Algeria, ranked from 99^th, 100^th and 102^nd with Egypt at 103^rd respectively. An extract of the report SUMMARY OF REPORT FINDINGS is reproduced here and for more details, please click on the links. ICT development index – country ranking  The ITU ICT Development Index 2017 (IDI 2017) featured in the MIS report is a unique benchmark of the level of ICT development in countries across the world. Iceland tops the IDI 2017 rankings. It is followed by two countries and one economy in the Asia and the Pacific region, and six other countries in Europe, which have competitive ICT markets that have experienced high levels of ICT investment and innovation over many years. The IDI has up to now been based on 11 indicators. However, recent developments in ICT markets have led to the review of those indicators. As a result of that review, in 2018 the index will be defined by 14 indicators that should add further insights into the performance of individual countries and the relative performance of countries at different development levels. Measuring ICT development The latest data on ICT development show continued progress in connectivity and use of ICTs. There has been sustained growth in the availability of communications in the past decade, led by growth in mobile cellular telephony and, more recently, in mobile-broadband. Growth in fixed and mobile-broadband infrastructure has stimulated Internet access and use. The number of mobile-broadband subscriptions worldwide now exceeds 50 per 100 population, enabling improved access to the Internet and online services.