Policy Brief - Mobile Data Plans in Kenya - Quantifying Women’s Access to the Digital World
Dear Listers, Kindly see below a summary policy brief that examines which mobile data plans people use in Kenya drafted by the Alliance for Affordable Internet <http://a4ai.org/>. The full draft of the policy brief is also linked at the end of the summary. Our results indicate that there are a few significant policy implications. We kindly ask you to review the policy brief linked below and leave your comments and suggestions and/or send comments directly to me @ berhan.taye@webfoundation.org by 12 May 2017. Thank you very much in advance for your comments and feedback. --- *Mobile Data Plans in Kenya - Quantifying Women’s Access to the Digital World * In this policy brief, we explore the level of Internet access Kenyan women and men have via their mobile phones. Using a quota sampling approach, we administered a set of mobile phone-based surveys to 500 female and 500 male Kenyans that use the Internet on their cell phones.[1] We classify mobile data bundles offered by Safaricom, Airtel Kenya, and Orange Kenya as full-cost, service specific, and zero-rated data packages.[2] Our result indicates that *women, in general, are more likely to use full-cost data bundles and pay the full advertised amount for their data than men *(when controlling for age, education, employment, and other factors) - 74% of Kenyan women use full-cost plans, while only 67% of men use the same package. However, *even though women prefer to pay for the advertised price of a data plan, they buy the smallest data bundles when compared to men*.[3] For instance, 35% of women buy 150MB of data, spending less than 199Ksh weekly, while only 24.7% of men resort to the cheapest data bundles. Women also tend to buy 350MB and 1024MB more frequently.[4] However, men categorically buy data bundles that are larger than 1GB when compared to women. This finding is a significant indicator of the limited spending power of Kenyan women and their ability to purchase mobile data packages and connect to the digital world. Moreover, we also find that the reverse is true for service-specific and zero-rated data plans: *more men prefer to use service-specific and zero-rated services than women.*[5] 15% and 2.8% of men use service-specific and zero-rated data bundles while only 4.4% and 1% of women use these bundles, respectively. This result indicates that men are more likely to use cheaper and subsidized data packages that offer access to a few websites and apps. This is possibly because in some cases (e.g., sports tv data bundles) the services appeal more to men. In sum, we postulate that these findings have a few policy implications: first, our analysis raises questions about why there should be different patterns in mobile data consumption between men and women. To better understand this it is essential that the Communications Authority of Kenya mandates operators and its institutions to gender disaggregate the data they publish. Second, seeing that women can only afford to buy the smallest data bundles, it is essential that we pursue policy and regulatory reform to lower industry cost structures which can help improve affordability for all. Lastly, to the extent where service-specific and zero-rated programs are allowed under the Kenyan laws and related net neutrality principles, the content of service-specific and zero-rated programs should better target the needs of both women and men. For more details, please refer to the draft full policy brief here <https://docs.google.com/document/d/1C_wAlfHwgoaIURrp3DR_oBs3sd0FKRsxSeWn_MJMvW4/edit?usp=sharing> . ------------------------------ [1] We used mobile phone Internet users as our primary focus because 99% of Internet subscriptions are via mobile phones in Kenya <http://www.ca.go.ke/images/downloads/PUBLICATIONS/ANNUALREPORTS/Annual%20Report%20for%20the%20Financial%20Year%202015-2016.pdf>. Surveys were carried out between January-March 2016. [2] Full-cost data bundle customers pay the full advertised amount for a data bundle and can access the entire content of the web; Service specific subscribers pay a cheaper or subsidized price and access very limited websites and apps like Facebook and Whatsapp; Zero-rated data plans are free, and the content is limited to zero--rated websites like Wikipedia and Facebook Zero. [3] The data bundles offered by the MNOs range from 150MB to 6144MB and cost between 199Ksh and 10,000Ksh. [4] Data bundles that women buy more than men are all data packages provided by Safaricom. [5] When holding age, education, employment, and other factors at a constant, this finding still holds true. *--* *Berhan Taye * Ford-Mozilla Open Web Fellow @btayeg <http://twitter.com/btayeg>
Thanks for sharing this. I found it a very interesting and informative read and like any research it raised some more questions for me. And like you, I see opportunities for policy actions therefrom especially for dealing with some of the nuanced gender related use or non-use. Cheers, Florence Etta On Wed, May 3, 2017 at 2:30 PM, Berhan Taye Gemeda via kictanet < kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> wrote:
Dear Listers,
Kindly see below a summary policy brief that examines which mobile data plans people use in Kenya drafted by the Alliance for Affordable Internet <http://a4ai.org/>. The full draft of the policy brief is also linked at the end of the summary.
Our results indicate that there are a few significant policy implications. We kindly ask you to review the policy brief linked below and leave your comments and suggestions and/or send comments directly to me @ berhan.taye@webfoundation.org by 12 May 2017.
Thank you very much in advance for your comments and feedback.
---
*Mobile Data Plans in Kenya - Quantifying Women’s Access to the Digital World *
In this policy brief, we explore the level of Internet access Kenyan women and men have via their mobile phones. Using a quota sampling approach, we administered a set of mobile phone-based surveys to 500 female and 500 male Kenyans that use the Internet on their cell phones.[1] We classify mobile data bundles offered by Safaricom, Airtel Kenya, and Orange Kenya as full-cost, service specific, and zero-rated data packages.[2]
Our result indicates that *women, in general, are more likely to use full-cost data bundles and pay the full advertised amount for their data than men *(when controlling for age, education, employment, and other factors) - 74% of Kenyan women use full-cost plans, while only 67% of men use the same package. However, *even though women prefer to pay for the advertised price of a data plan, they buy the smallest data bundles when compared to men*.[3] For instance, 35% of women buy 150MB of data, spending less than 199Ksh weekly, while only 24.7% of men resort to the cheapest data bundles. Women also tend to buy 350MB and 1024MB more frequently.[4] However, men categorically buy data bundles that are larger than 1GB when compared to women. This finding is a significant indicator of the limited spending power of Kenyan women and their ability to purchase mobile data packages and connect to the digital world.
Moreover, we also find that the reverse is true for service-specific and zero-rated data plans: *more men prefer to use service-specific and zero-rated services than women.*[5] 15% and 2.8% of men use service-specific and zero-rated data bundles while only 4.4% and 1% of women use these bundles, respectively. This result indicates that men are more likely to use cheaper and subsidized data packages that offer access to a few websites and apps. This is possibly because in some cases (e.g., sports tv data bundles) the services appeal more to men.
In sum, we postulate that these findings have a few policy implications: first, our analysis raises questions about why there should be different patterns in mobile data consumption between men and women. To better understand this it is essential that the Communications Authority of Kenya mandates operators and its institutions to gender disaggregate the data they publish. Second, seeing that women can only afford to buy the smallest data bundles, it is essential that we pursue policy and regulatory reform to lower industry cost structures which can help improve affordability for all. Lastly, to the extent where service-specific and zero-rated programs are allowed under the Kenyan laws and related net neutrality principles, the content of service-specific and zero-rated programs should better target the needs of both women and men.
For more details, please refer to the draft full policy brief here <https://docs.google.com/document/d/1C_wAlfHwgoaIURrp3DR_oBs3sd0FKRsxSeWn_MJMvW4/edit?usp=sharing> .
------------------------------
[1] We used mobile phone Internet users as our primary focus because 99% of Internet subscriptions are via mobile phones in Kenya <http://www.ca.go.ke/images/downloads/PUBLICATIONS/ANNUALREPORTS/Annual%20Report%20for%20the%20Financial%20Year%202015-2016.pdf>. Surveys were carried out between January-March 2016.
[2] Full-cost data bundle customers pay the full advertised amount for a data bundle and can access the entire content of the web; Service specific subscribers pay a cheaper or subsidized price and access very limited websites and apps like Facebook and Whatsapp; Zero-rated data plans are free, and the content is limited to zero--rated websites like Wikipedia and Facebook Zero.
[3] The data bundles offered by the MNOs range from 150MB to 6144MB and cost between 199Ksh and 10,000Ksh.
[4] Data bundles that women buy more than men are all data packages provided by Safaricom.
[5] When holding age, education, employment, and other factors at a constant, this finding still holds true.
*--* *Berhan Taye * Ford-Mozilla Open Web Fellow @btayeg <http://twitter.com/btayeg>
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participants (2)
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Berhan Taye Gemeda -
Florence Etta