Sec. 3. Findings
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Congress finds the following: Since 2005, the number of Internet users has more than tripled from 1 billion to 3.2 billion. 4.2 billion people, 60 percent of the world’s population, remain offline and the growth rate of Internet access is slowing. An estimated 75 percent of the offline population lives in just 20 countries and is largely rural, female, elderly, illiterate, and low-income. Studies suggest that across the developing world, women are nearly 50 percent less likely to access the Internet than men living within the same communities, and that this digital gender divide carries with it a great economic cost.
According to a study, Women and the Web , bringing an additional 600 million women online would contribute $13 billion–$18 billion to annual GDP across 144 developing countries. Without increased Internet access, the developing world risks falling behind. Internet access in developing countries is hampered by a lack of infrastructure and a poor regulatory environment for investment. Build-once policies and approaches are policies or practices that minimize the number and scale of excavation and construction activities when installing telecommunications infrastructure in rights-of-way, thereby lowering the installation costs for high-speed Internet networks and serve as a development best practice.