810m women in LMICs still unconnected as mobile gender gap persists: GSMA

Details: John Tanner; Category: Humanitarian Comms; 12 June 2026; 1733 views

The global gender gap in mobile internet adoption narrowed slightly in 2025 according to new figures from the GSMA, but low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) remain behind the curve, with 810 million women still offline, compared to 595 million men.

The GSMA’s Mobile Gender Gap Report 2026 report, published on Wednesday, found that women in LMICs are still 12% less likely to use mobile internet than men.

Of the 810 million women still not using mobile internet in LMICs, more than two thirds live in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, the regions with the widest gender gaps in mobile internet adoption, at 26% and 25%, respectively, the report said.

Meanwhile, the gender gap also tends to be two to three times wider in rural areas compared to urban areas across LMICs, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, and the Middle East and North Africa. Least developed countries and landlocked developing countries also suffer from wider gender gaps in mobile internet adoption, the report said.

Part of the issue is smartphone ownership, with 210 million fewer women than men owning smartphones in LMICs, which is also related to the issue of smartphone affordability.

However, other barriers include literacy and digital skills – issues that also apply to men, but impact women disproportionality due to social norms and structural inequalities such as lower education and income.

Even once women are online, they often face barriers to using mobile internet as frequently and for as many use cases as men, including safety and security concerns, affordability of data (as well as handsets) and, to some extent, the connectivity experience.

Claire Sibthorpe, head of digital inclusion at the GSMA, said that while the overall mobile gender gap has been narrowing slowly since 2022, much more needs to be done to address persistent gender gaps in mobile internet adoption and use.

“We live in an increasingly digital world and the proliferation of technologies such as AI are creating greater digital divides and inequities, elevating the need to ensure digital inclusion for all,” Sibthorpe said in a statement.

The GSMA has said that closing the gender gap in mobile internet adoption in LMICs could not only give women greater resilience in the face of economic, climate and political crises and shocks, as well as access to digital services to improve their livelihoods, but also add US$1.3 trillion in additional GDP between 2023 to 2030.

The mobile industry could also generate US$230 billion in additional revenue during that time via expanded device ownership for women, the report said.

Achieving that remains a matter of strengthened collaboration across government, industry and the development community with targeted and sustained intervention to improve the affordability of handsets and data, expand digital skills and literacy programmes, address safety and security concerns, design mobile products and services to meet women’s needs, and tackle social norms and structural inequalities, the report added.

Sibthorpe noted that the GSMA’s Connected Women Commitment Initiative has made progress in this area, with more than 50 mobile operators committing to formal targets to accelerate women’s digital and financial inclusion, reaching over 90 million additional women with mobile internet or mobile money services since 2016.

However, she added, “There is an urgent need to accelerate the pace of progress that has been made to date, which requires informed, targeted action and investment by all stakeholders working together to realise the significant social and commercial benefits to women, societies and economies of addressing the mobile gender gap.”