Crescent CEO highlights internet divide

DUBAI. For governments and businesses, it’s about getting the other half of the world’s population online. Or 47 per cent, to be precise.

Because that is the estimate of people worldwide who are still offline. And the cost of available broadband exceeds affordability targets in 50 per cent of developed countries. This state of affairs will have to change, according to Badr Jafar, CEO of Crescent Enterprises and a leading voice of the Edison Alliance.

“Addressing the global challenges that humanity and our habitat faces is of course the ultimate goal,” he said. “Technology is a means to that end, and it isn’t the agent of change, either. We, the connected people, are the true agents of change. And history will judge us on whether we really used these tools for the collective betterment of humanity and our planet.”