Q&A: Inside the digital quest to improve a billion lives

Only around half of the world’s population is using mobile internet, despite some 95% now being covered by a mobile broadband network. This usage gap indicates there are still significant adoption challenges, even when people theoretically have access.

Breaking down these barriers is ever more essential in light of COVID-19, showing the urgency of digital inclusion and the Sustainable Development Goals being underpinned by digitization, said Hans Vestberg, the chairman and CEO of Verizon, the world’s largest wireless, fiber-optic, and global information networks and services company.

To focus squarely on this issue, Verizon and other leaders from the public and private sectors united to form the EDISON Alliance during the Davos Agenda in January 2021. The aim of the Alliance, launched with the World Economic Forum, is to foster cross-sector collaboration to facilitate affordable and accessible digital solutions in health, finance, and education. In doing so, the alliance aims to improve 1 billion lives by 2025.

“This is about societal applications,” said Vestberg, who chairs the alliance. “The focus has to be getting people digitally included, so you’re able to get the same services regardless of where you live or where you're born.”

Speaking to Devex in the lead-up to the WEF’s 2023 annual meeting in Davos, Vestberg elaborated on the EDISON Alliance’s strategy for fostering digital inclusion, its journey so far, and its vision of the future.

This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

What was behind the formation of the EDISON Alliance?

I’ve been a long-time believer that the 21st-century infrastructure is mobility, broadband, and cloud, and that everybody in the world should have the same opportunities regardless of where they live. When COVID-19 hit, the reality of that infrastructure build really hit home: Those who are connected are part of society and those who are not connected are not — they cannot work, they cannot get information.

Klaus Schwab and the World Economic Forum saw a need for a convening platform to address this and called me in late 2020 to think about how to tackle it together. From that conversation, EDISON Alliance was born.

In those conversations, we agreed on creating a multistakeholder platform to address digital inclusion. We decided early on that we wanted to focus on the three areas of education, financial inclusion, and health care. All three can be underpinned by digital technology.

What are the alliance’s main aims for improving digital inclusion around the world, and how is it seeking to do so?

We know that 95% of Earth’s population is covered by mobile broadband, but only around 50% of the population is actually using it. So digital inclusion has to be something much more profound than saying, “If you build broadband, you're going to fix everything.”

At the EDISON Alliance, we see the challenge in three parts: a need to address accessibility, affordability, and usability. All three elements have to be present for people to be part of our society.

The concept is simple. Some countries have the infrastructure but lack device affordability and digital skills. Others have digital competency, but lack broadband access and/or the ability to purchase a device. It’s when all three are addressed that a person can be digitally included in our society and have a digital identity — something that’s critical for modern health care, banking, and education.

What key steps have the EDISON Alliance made since it was launched?

We started with the structure. We decided on a small board representing all the industries we’re solving for: health care, education, and financial inclusion.

We established a goal of getting 1 billion more people connected globally. Then we started asking companies and countries to make commitments to support each area based on their expertise — like Apollo for health care and Mastercard and Vista Equities to tackle finance.

In the alliance, we have everyone from Google, to the country governments of Rwanda and Singapore. The team represents the diversity of the project and the complexity of a truly global challenge.

Is the alliance on target to achieve the goal of improving 1 billion lives by 2025?

It is achievable, but it demands that people are focused and committed. We're tracking things — and when we launch our report in January at the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos, we’ll talk about what has happened in the past two years, the commitments we’ve made, and how far we’ve come.

During 2022, we also kicked off an initiative called the Lighthouse Countries. We’ve started with Bahrain, Bangladesh, and Rwanda to start integrating our commitments and solutions locally with the greatest opportunities to scale and test.  

There are other projects going on as well that we’re going to talk about at Davos, but every subproject is in support of reaching this 1 billion target.

What are the biggest obstacles to achieving digital inclusion?

The challenge is that the private sector or the public sector cannot achieve a digitally inclusive society alone — it has to be a combination. Much of the world’s networks are comprised of private money and private companies, but when it comes to reaching every person, garnering trust, and addressing the region’s specific needs, the public sector plays a vital role.

Subsidies for the most vital infrastructure can bring down health care and education costs. If I need to build 100 new hospitals in an African country, maybe I only need to build 25 if the proactive work can be done digitally. It’s far cheaper and you can handle many more patients, but it's about education too — for example, how do you use a health care app? It’s a long journey, and that's what we’re trying to sort out.

What’s your call to action for organizations looking to make an impact in improving digital inclusion around the world?

Every organization should really think within their own mission and expertise — whether it’s an NGO, an enterprise, or a country — and ask themselves how can they best contribute to connecting our society.

I’d also make the case for innovation. To get everyone connected and participating in the digital economy, we all need to consider how we build our products and services, and how we best offer the best of everything we have at scale.

For more information on the work of the EDISON Alliance, visit https://www.edisonalliance.org/home