Understanding your users

Access to communication channels

Network coverage

The first thing to establish is the coverage of communication networks. Does the country have total coverage for radio, TV, mobile phone networks and Internet?

If the coverage is not total, where are the gaps? For example, if 80% of the country has TV coverage, does the remaining 20% have radio coverage?

This information should be available from government, regulators and network providers.

Access to technology

It is more difficult to find out how many people have the technology to access coverage.

For example, a region may have 100% internet coverage, but it only 20% of people living in that region have access to smartphones, tablets or laptops, it would be better to choose another way to deliver remote learning.

To complicate things even more, the presence of a device in a household does not mean everyone has access to it.

If 90% of households have a mobile phone, this does not mean that 90% of children have access to mobile phone services – their parents may need the phone for their own use. Or perhaps a child does have access to the mobile phone, but only for an hour a day.

You can also expect big differences in access between cities and the countryside, and between households with different incomes.

It is not enough to think about the presence of technology, you must also think about who has access to it, and for how long.