Post by Citi

Sharing a mobile tower between operators cuts costs for telecoms companies and lowers prices for consumers — while improving network quality at the same time. Oxford Martin School research funded by Citi confirms this, and the implications for closing the global digital divide are significant. A third of the world's population still doesn't use the internet. The coverage gap has shrunk dramatically — from 20% of people living out of range in 2015 to just 4% today. But the bigger obstacle now is the usage gap: 38% of the global population has coverage and still isn't online. The primary reason? Affordability. An entry-level smartphone costs the equivalent of 16% of monthly income in low- and middle-income countries. Infrastructure sharing — particularly through Tower Companies (TowerCos) — addresses this directly. When operators share towers rather than each building their own, capital costs fall, returns on investment rise, and savings flow through to consumers. In Portugal, sharing led to a 12.5% increase in 4G coverage. In Switzerland, 13.3%. Yet in Sub-Saharan Africa, where the usage gap is widest, nearly half of all towers are still managed by individual operators rather than TowerCos. South Asia, by contrast, has over 75% TowerCo penetration — and a coverage gap of just 4%. The ITU estimates universal connectivity requires $1.6 trillion in infrastructure investment over the next five years. Full Connectivity: Bridging the Digital Divide with Shared Infrastructure, makes the case that infrastructure sharing can meaningfully reduce what needs to be spent — and accelerate who gets connected. Read more on https://on.citi/4tDH0IV #CitiInstitute #DigitalInclusion #Connectivity #Telecoms #EmergingMarkets #Infrastructure