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Espoo – Smart cities are great, but we also need smart villages, according to Nokia chief Pekka Lundmark. In an article for the World Economic Forum, he highlights the need to improve internet access for rural communities to bridge the growing digital divide.

The COVID-19 pandemic showed the importance of connectivity, but also highlighted a growing digital divide – 3.6 billion people lack even the most basic internet access, according to Pekka Lundmark, president and CEO of Nokia, in an article for the World Economic Forum. Connectivity enables people to work, shop, bank, socialise and access healthcare from home. 

One way to build such connectivity successfully, says Lundmark, is through public-private partnerships. He cites the example of El Salvador, where only around half of the population uses the internet and two-thirds of public schools are offline. To address this divide, the public and private sectors in El Salvador are working together to bring broadband to every school by 2030, and gradually extend it to medical centres, hospitals and police stations. 

In other parts of the world, continues Lundmark, investments in fixed networks are improving connectivity. In Nepal, 1,500 kilometres of optical networks are being modernised to enable high-speed broadband access. This will allow the local service provider to satisfy growing demand for bandwidth and provide users with improved service quality.

“In addition to connectivity being a fundamental right, widespread connectivity also has a huge multiplier effect,” writes Lundmark. He theorises that it could encourage digital entrepreneurs to develop marketable and socially useful applications and services, as well as stimulate economic and social progress across a country.