Egypt has moved up five spots in the Inclusive Internet Index 2021, ranking 73rd out of 120 countries (compared to 78th in 2020), and 4th out of 29 African countries. The country scored 64.5 points, compared to 61.8 in 2020, according to a report by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), published by the Information and Decision Support Center (IDSC).

The report provides a rigorous benchmark of national-level Internet inclusion in countries, discusses how it meets the needs of all segments of society, and gauges perceptions on how Internet use affects people’s lives and livelihoods.

Commenting on the report, the Minister of Communications and Information Technology Amr Talaat underlined that Egypt's improved ranking reflects the national efforts towards building Digital Egypt, a vision that involves projects based on the availability of a developed information infrastructure.

Talaat highlighted that the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT) is implementing a comprehensive action plan through Telecom Egypt to improve the telecommunication networks and develop the ICT infrastructure, nationwide, capitalizing on cutting-edge technology, namely fiber optics. Investments of more than EGP 30 billion were made to develop the ICT infrastructure, over the past two years, with the third phase of the project in progress. This has helped increase the Internet speed in Egypt by six-fold to 34.8 Mbps, compared to 6.5 Mbps in January 2019, he added.

This year's report discussed how the pandemic has compelled people to use the Internet more and for a wider range of activities than ever before. The Index, in its approach, is based on four categories: Availability, which examines the quality and breadth of available infrastructure required for access, and levels of Internet usage; Affordability, which examines the cost of access relative to income and the level of competition in the Internet marketplace; Relevance, which examines the existence and extent of local language content and relevant content; and Readiness, which examines the capacity to access the Internet, including skills, cultural acceptance, and supporting policy.

According to the report, Egypt's score improved significantly in most categories, most notably Relevance, where it scored 76, compared to 88 in 2020, advancing 12 spots compared to last year. In Affordability, Egypt scored 73, moving up nine spots compared to last year where it scored 82.

The Inclusive Internet Index contains 57 sub-indices. It draws on several global databases, such as the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the World Bank, the United Nations (UN), the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). This is in addition to surveys by consulting firms, such as Telegraphy and Gallup. The index supports policymakers to identify the factors that help attain sustainable inclusion in countries.