Improving data infrastructure helps ensure equitable access for poor people in poor countries
2021 World Development Report: Data for Better Lives
An explosion of data
Global data traffic has increased one thousand times over the last 20 years. Data travel thousands of kilometers along this seamless global data infrastructure supply chain at breathtaking speeds of 200,000 kilometers per second—meaning that digital data can, in principle, circle the globe five times within a second. This explosion of data creates an ever-growing demand for data infrastructure.
Without modern data infrastructure at the national level, countries are unable to provide affordable and reliable connectivity to their population. At the same time, without access to broadband infrastructure at the local level, people cannot gain access to the wealth of data that exists, nor can data about those people be captured—so that their needs and preferences can be taken into account in the design and provision of public and private services. The