Tokyo (AFP) – A memory chip crunch fuelled by the artificial intelligence boom is hindering efforts to bring more people online worldwide, the head of the GSMA telecoms industry association told AFP. An estimated 2.2 billion people — around a quarter of the global population — were not connected to the internet at all in 2025, according to the United Nations. Yet only four percent of people live in mobile internet connectivity blackspots, according to the GSMA, whose members include more than 1,000 mobile operators and related businesses.
That means higher smartphone prices caused by the global shortage of memory chips are a “real hit” to efforts to close the gap, director general Vivek Badrinath said. “It is a very tight situation” and “many manufacturers have reduced their efforts on low-end devices,” he said in an interview ahead of a GSMA event in Tokyo on Wednesday. “The risk of that is that there are fewer available low-end devices, which in Africa in particular is going to hurt. It is a serious issue.”
The rush to build AI data centres has sent orders soaring for advanced high-bandwidth memory microchips, which help the systems process vast amounts of data. As chipmakers prioritise the lucrative AI industry, they are producing fewer less flashy chips that are used in everyday consumer electronics like phones and laptops, pushing up device prices. Chey Tae-won, chair of the South Korean business group that includes chip giant SK hynix, told reporters at a tech conference in San Jose in March that the shortage will likely persist through 2030.
If everyone were able to access the internet through their mobile, global gross domestic product could grow by as much as $3.5 trillion by the end of this decade as digital tools and information make businesses more profitable, according to the GSMA. The organisation is “engaging with every player in the industry” to address the issue — including by lobbying policymakers to cut taxes or provide financing, and by encouraging smartphone recycling, Badrinath said.
Meanwhile, the rapid expansion of low-orbit satellite communications networks promises to eventually offer connectivity to people practically anywhere on the planet. Amazon said Tuesday it had signed a deal to buy the US telecoms satellite group Globalstar, to expand its own space-based internet network and compete with Elon Musk’s Starlink.
Despite the exciting developments, most people will only “use satellite once in a while,” Badrinath said. “Most of the time, you’re still going to be at home under wi-fi or outside on your mobile network. And satellite doesn’t work indoors that well.”
It’s also important that satellite companies offering cross-border services follow existing frameworks for the mainstream mobile internet, Badrinath stressed. “It’s important that policymakers define policies that ensure that…rules on privacy, on legal intercept, all those compliance rules are also adhered to by satellite operators. And that’s something that we’re working on with them.”
© 2024 AFP
