Since the coronavirus pandemic, digital technology has been used much more. “Some Internet providers report that their data traffic has increased by 36 percent since the beginning of the crisis,” writes the organization for economic cooperation and Development (OECD) in a current report on the state of the digital economy. In Germany, the increase was 5 percent. At the same time, it is becoming increasingly important to counteract the digital divide internationally and regionally.

(Image: OECD)

In their study “Digital Economy Outlook 2020 “the OECD states that the fiber optic share in broadband connections in the fixed network in Germany, Austria, Belgium and some other countries is 5 percent, in South Korea on the other hand 82 percent. Digital technology is important because it “enabled us to avoid the Covid 19 crisis leads to a complete standstill, “says the OECD, in which, in addition to Germany 36, other countries primarily from Europe, plus in Asia, Oceania and America are gathered together.

Dependency ” We were able to expand our knowledge of the virus, advance the search for a vaccine and follow the development of the pandemic, “said OECD Vice Secretary-General Ulrik Vestergaard Knudsen. “But the crisis has also revealed how much we depend on digital technologies and how big the digital divide is within and between countries. How our societies and economies stand after the crisis also depends on how well we do it To narrow the gap. ”

The growing demand for bandwidth-intensive communication services through e-commerce, teleworking and social online activities as well as the increased cross-border cooperation between politics, education and research will further stimulate development, believes the OECD. However, this would also make effective strategies against cybercrime more urgent.

More usage, lower prices Mobile data usage per subscriber has quadrupled in the four years before June 2019 in the OECD countries. At the same time, the prices for heavily used mobile broadband services are between 2013 and 2019 by 59 percent. While in June 2019 per hundred inhabitants 113 Contracts for high-speed mobile internet came about ten years earlier 32.

The OECD study aims to provide a snapshot of the state of the digital economy and the political environment so that policymakers can shape a “stronger, broader digital future,” writes the OECD.

(anw)