As global connectivity growth slows and enterprise infrastructure gaps widen, the latest data from the ITU presents a reality check.
Released alongside the conclusion of the World Telecommunication Development Conference (WTDC-25) in Baku, the Global Connectivity Report 2025 suggests the era of easy, organic network expansion is over. While 74 percent of the world is now online, the curve is flattening, and the remaining deficits are structural rather than merely about access.
It is no longer just about getting users online; it is about keeping business operations running on networks that often lack the resilience required for modern cloud workloads. With an estimated 2.2 billion people still offline, ITU Member States agreed this week on the Baku Action Plan—a four-year roadmap to 2029 designed to close these persistent divides.
The report pivots to a metric that matters more to a CIO than a policymaker: “universal and meaningful connectivity” (UMC). This framework acknowledges that a spotty 3G signal is functionally irrelevant for a supply chain manager tracking real-time logistics. The data indicates that while basic coverage is high, the heavy-duty infrastructure needed for enterprise-grade applications remains dangerously thin.
Navigating enterprise infrastructure risks across fibre, subsea cables, and satellite networks
Mobile networks might appear ubiquitous, but the fibre required to backhaul data is not. The ITU notes that “as of 2023, only 32 percent of the global population lived within 10 kilometres of a fibre-optic node”.
Even within that radius, local loops often fail to bridge the last mile. For executives planning edge computing deployments in emerging markets, this physical gap creates a headache: data can be generated at the edge, but it cannot always move back to the core.
5G deployment makes the divide sharper. While connectivity reaches 55 percent of the global population, it is heavily concentrated. Europe, Asia-Pacific, and the Americas see coverage rates of 60-74 percent, whereas other regions languish between 8-13 percent. This creates a tiered digital map where automated industrial IoT works in Frankfurt but goes dark in Lagos.
Underneath the ocean, the situation is just as precarious. Subsea cables carry over 99 percent of international data, a network now largely bankrolled by hyperscale tech firms securing their own supply lines. However, these cables break about four times a week, usually because of fishing trawlers or dragging anchors.
Fixing a subsea cable can take from “two weeks to several months” thanks to permitting bureaucracy and restrictive cabotage laws blocking foreign repair ships. The new International Advisory Body on Submarine Cable Resilience – which launched in 2024 – attempts to fix this diplomatic mess, but right now redundancy is the only defence for business continuity.
Low Earth Orbit (LEO) constellations have become the fashionable enterprise hedge against terrestrial infrastructure failure. The sector added 1.1 million subscriptions in 2024. Yet, actual penetration is statistically negligible—less than one subscription per 1,000 inhabitants globally.
Satellites are a lifeline for a remote mine or a disconnected school, but they aren’t replacing terrestrial fibre. Recognising that hardware needs humans to run it, a new deal signed at WTDC with Intersputnik will train 300 professionals in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) region specifically on maintaining these non-terrestrial networks.
Overcoming global connectivity affordability barriers and the digital skills gap in emerging markets
Prices have dropped, with entry-level mobile broadband now roughly half as expensive in PPP terms as it was in 2013. However, the bottom tier of the market is still priced out.
In low-income economies, a basic mobile plan eats up nearly 10 percent of monthly income. For the bottom 40 percent of earners, that jumps to 20 percent. This economic friction effectively caps the addressable market for digital services.
The skills gap acts as the other brake on ROI. The report identifies a massive urban-rural split in technical competence. People can chat, but they often cannot troubleshoot or create content.
Targeted interventions agreed at WTDC aim to fix this. For instance, a new partnership with Senegal’s regulatory authority focuses on upskilling female entrepreneurs in digital trade, while a project with Australia’s infrastructure department targets rural communities in the Asia-Pacific.
For global employers, such initiatives suggest that local talent pools may require significant corporate training investment to be operational.
Leveraging regulatory frameworks to inform enterprise connectivity strategy
If you want to know which global players will have reliable infrastructure for enterprise connectivity five years from now, look at the regulator today. The ITU’s data proves that countries with “converged licensing regimes” and “mandatory infrastructure sharing” have 5G coverage 40 percentage points higher than those that do not.
For executives, the “G5 Benchmark” of regulatory maturity is a proxy for investment risk. Markets with independent regulators and clear spectrum trading rules generally work; those without them tend to suffer from high costs and stalled upgrades.
The Baku Action Plan explicitly pushes for frameworks that “paves the way for industry and private sector to invest,” a clear signal that governments know they cannot close these gaps with public money alone.
The “easy” growth phase of the internet is finished. What comes next is a grind to harden infrastructure and deepen utility. The persistent divides in fibre availability and advanced skills create a fractured map where global strategies must be hyper-local. Enterprises can no longer treat connectivity as a boring utility. It is a variable risk factor.
Reliance on diesel generators in regions with poor grids inflates costs, while restrictive cabotage laws delay cable repairs. The transition to meaningful global connectivity requires the private sector to aggressively lobby for infrastructure sharing and spectrum efficiency, because the current digital foundation isn’t strong enough to hold up the next generation of enterprise applications.
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