Industry Agenda Expanding Participation and Boosting Growth: The Infrastructure Needs of the Digital Economy

The report identifies critical barriers to digital growth, emphasizing the need for increased mobile spectrum and innovative funding models to connect rural areas in emerging markets. It argues that internet adoption is hindered more by a perceived lack of need and digital skills than by affordability. The document also addresses the infrastructure pressures caused by the Internet of Things (IoT), the requirements for developing 'smart cities', and the need for frameworks to enable seamless personal data portability.

• Emerging markets face a significant deficit in mobile spectrum required for 2020 demands; some countries may need up to 10 times more spectrum than is currently available.
• High spectrum auction prices can negatively impact internet penetration because successful bidders may lack the remaining capital needed for actual network investment.
• In emerging markets, the primary barriers to internet adoption are a perceived lack of need—often due to a shortage of local-language content—and a lack of digital skills, while affordability is a less significant factor.
• The economic viability of rural connectivity is often unattractive for mobile network operators due to high capital and operating costs combined with low average revenues per user; however, infrastructure sharing can reduce this profitability gap by nearly 50%.
• The rise of the Internet of Things (IoT) is expected to add 30-50 billion connected devices by 2020, creating a need for new spectrum types, standardized communication protocols, and 'light' secure protocols to accommodate power-constrained devices.
• The development of smart cities is hindered by a lack of comprehensive ICT infrastructure visions and the difficulty of financing large investments with long payback periods, often exceeding a decade.
• There is a growing need for technical, policy, and legal frameworks to reduce friction in the transportation and access of personal digital assets, such as healthcare and government records, while maintaining privacy.
• Network latency is becoming a critical constraint for future applications; while 40-100 ms is currently adequate, future needs may require latency of less than 10 ms, a target associated with 5G connections.

APA

World Economic Forum (2015). Industry Agenda Expanding Participation and Boosting Growth: The Infrastructure Needs of the Digital Economy. http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEFUSA_DigitalInfrastructure_Report2015.pdf

Chicago

World Economic Forum. Industry Agenda Expanding Participation and Boosting Growth: The Infrastructure Needs of the Digital Economy. 2015. http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEFUSA_DigitalInfrastructure_Report2015.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=World Economic Forum |title=Industry Agenda Expanding Participation and Boosting Growth: The Infrastructure Needs of the Digital Economy |date=March 2015 |url=http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEFUSA_DigitalInfrastructure_Report2015.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{worldeconomicforum2015industry, author = {{World Economic Forum}}, title = {{Industry Agenda Expanding Participation and Boosting Growth: The Infrastructure Needs of the Digital Economy}}, institution = {World Economic Forum}, year = {2015}, month = mar, url = {http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEFUSA_DigitalInfrastructure_Report2015.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }