Sustainability challenge and related SDGs:
The Internet has changed the way we live, work, do business and interact. It connects people all over the world. Social contacts are made and maintained online; information about global events is shared; people interact on the labour market or take up further education.
In 2020, there was an unusually large increase in the number of people who went online. This was due to the measures taken in response to the COVID19 pandemic, such as lockdowns and school closures, which contributed to people's need to access news, social contacts, health information or e-commerce.
Global connectivity increased by more than 10% worldwide in the first year of the pandemic - by far the largest annual increase in a decade - and is estimated to have brought an additional 782 million people (about 17%) online. Currently, around 63% of the population worldwide has access to the internet. 37% of certain populations (2.9 billion) still live offline and this lack of digital inclusion exacerbates existing inequalities in already marginalised groups of people such as women, the poor, youth or people with disabilities.
Possible solutions and their contribution to achieving the SDGs
This underlines the prominent role played by the internet in today’s world. Not only does it have the potential to meet human needs, but it is also crucial to achieving sustainable development in the years to come. For example, by building smarter and more sustainable cities and communities (SDG 11), urban dwellers from all walks of life (SDG 10) can reap the benefits of technological advances that provide them with quality-of-life opportunities, such as access to healthcare.
Companies associated with the radiSolution #StayConnected contribute to this development by providing business-to-consumer (B2C) telecommunications services, such as mobile telephony, fixed telephony and broadband internet access.
Primarily related SDG Targets: 10.2, 11.3
Investment Rationale and Growth Potential
We live in a digital age. IoT has impacted every aspect of life, and in the future, the penetration of the internet will continue to increase: according to forecasts, connectivity will almost triple from 9.7 billion in 2020 to more than 29 billion IoT devices in 2030. Forecasts show that the annual growth rate will increase by around 10.42% (2022 - 2027). This offers investors interesting opportunities to invest in a growing market.
