In an era where online services continue to proliferate, a significant number of individuals find themselves at a disadvantage due to their limited access to mobile internet, despite residing in regions with mobile broadband network coverage.

This situation referred to as the usage gap is affecting many people around the world. It mainly results from factors like high prices for smart phones and lack of digital skills to use higher end feature gadgets.

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On the sidelines of the Mobile World Congress that unfolded in KIGALI, The New Times sat down with Max Cuvellier, the Head of Mobile for Development at Groupe Speciale Mobile Association (GSMA), a non-profit industry organisation that represents the interests of mobile network operators worldwide, to talk about the causes of the usage gap in countries and what can be done to address it.

Interview excerpts:

So, we are talking about the usage gap. Tell us about the challenge that it is?

The reason why we care so much about the usage gap and those challenges is because we want to realise the potential of mobile for everybody. And so, when the network has been built and people are not using it and they're missing out on health, education, agriculture, like solutions that they could get access to through the mobile internet, for us this is really a missed opportunity.

So in terms of the usage gap and the biggest issues, the two that are probably top of mind for us are handset affordability and digital skills. Generally speaking, they really go together. If you only address handset affordability and find handsets that are cheaper but also with the ways to access them, that are like make it, make them available on a pay as you go basis for instance, this is good.

But if people still don't know how to use it, people don't understand what the internet is, people don't know how to use it safely and you're not really going to have any kind of impact and in the same way, if you training people on how to use the internet but they can't afford the smartphone that they need or that the higher end feature phone that they need to access the internet you will get nowhere.

So I think these are really the two big barriers that we're focusing on at the moment. The other ones are important as well, safety and security, the relevance of the content and that is available.

What are you doing to address this gap?

I don't think any player can solve the problem on their own. So what we're really creating is a forum for the private sector and the public sector to come together to talk about what is needed.

It is not just about bringing down the smart phone prices. There are different elements. One is bringing the price of the phone itself down.

It is one where the industry and the public sector can put pressure on device manufacturers. But if they can't find a commercial sustainable way of bringing the price down, there's not much you can do about that.

For the other two buckets, one is on the taxation, because if you manage to bring the price down to let's say $35 but once it enters the country with import duties it jumps to $50 or $55, then you are creating an extra barrier.

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In some countries we are seeing up to 60 percent of import duties on smartphones.

You're trying to bring the price down but then it comes to the country, the price jumps. What it also creates is a black market and a grey market that are much harder to structure and so on. Mobile operators, for instance, need to comply with all these duties but some people will try and go around them.

The third bucket is on financing. It's finding a way, in the same way that many Africans have access to a solar home system by paying it in instalments. For instance, instead of paying $300 in one go, they can make a first instalment and then through mobile money, repay it on a weekly or monthly basis.

Are there things that you have noticed in Rwanda that are good in this regard?

From Rwanda in particular I think it's a good mix. We know the things that are going to come in the market that are really going to bring together both the handset affordability side but also the digital inclusion side, because it is the same thing. If you put a smartphone in someone's hands, you need to explain to them how to use it so they can really leverage its potential.

There are a lot of various strong foundations here (in Rwanda), for instance very cheap smartphones that have been trialled on the markets and community representatives or community ambassadors that are working on digital inclusion.

For me, it's a great foundation from both the public and the private sector. The next step is to bring them all together in a kind of an end to end life cycle for the user, meaning that they get their first introduction about what the mobile internet is from a local ambassador and then they go and buy a sim to put in their basic phone.

And then they get a bit of education from the agents and then they're ready to buy a smartphone and then it's clear what is on offer.

And maybe there is access to a financing mechanism but once they have registered, then someone is there on a regular basis to maybe call them after two weeks and say, ‘Okay, are you making the most of it? Do you understand how it works?’

Tell me about the advantages of everyone having smart phones and being connected?

You have got the advantages of digitising both on the social side and on the economy side. Rwanda has been ahead of the curve for instance in terms of digitising governance services, making some of them even doable through USSD and very basic technologies that are accessible to a wider population.

A lot of governments and private sectors are seeing the value of digitising use-cases like government services, access to markets for farmers or access to insurance and so on. But a lot of this relies on being connected to a digital society in a digital economy, and creating an economic identity, because you are part of this system. You are paying for things with mobile money, you go online and have a virtual digital identity that gives you access to a lot of different things.

So for me, this is really the potential of bridging the usage gap. It is making sure that all the services that are being developed benefit everyone and I think as an industry, for us what is very important is that the digital world that we are creating does not translate the existing inequalities of the physical world.

The reality today is in most countries, if you are a woman, you have access to less opportunities than if you are a man. If you live in rural areas, you have access to less opportunities than if you are in cities, if you didn't get a good education and your literacy isn't great, you get access to less opportunities.

Finally, can we talk about safety? How can we ensure ordinary users are safe while using the internet?

When you talk about the security of systems, like mobile systems, financial systems, and the internet generally speaking, the industry is trying to do their part. There are a lot of regulations and so on for mobile operators.

What we are seeing though, is two things. One is there are more and more players in the digital world and in the mobile money world. A system, overall, is only as strong as its weakest link. So if you are making APIs available more and more, smaller organisations might be going online. A hacker or someone with bad intentions will try and go through those less safe doors.

It's important that the whole private sector community really commits to keeping the level of security as high as possible. But usually people stop there and just think that if the system is safe, that is enough. But for me, any kind of user has a very strong responsibility (towards safety).

This is why when we have a suite of digital skills that we deliver for people about mobile internet, we always include one on safety and security because your system can be as strong as you want. If someone gives away their email password, you are not going to go anywhere. We all have a responsibility.