The ubiquity of mobile phones and affordable communications contributes to the empowerment of previously marginalized and poor people through an increase in people-to-people connectivity and facilitated exchange of knowledge. However, even though more people around the world are now online thanks to the rapid uptake in mobile-broadband technology, large disparities in terms of ICT access and use continue to exist in the Asia-Pacific region, with least developed countries still lagging far behind their developing neighbours in terms of access and use. This figure is a little below the global average of 95.8 (Fig 6).