According to the 2014 Information and Communications Technology Survey just released by Statistics Botswana, 40.6 percent of households had access to internet in the year under review. Statistics Botswana also says, “the majority of households with access to internet used mobile internet. This constitutes 94.3% of all households with access to internet.”
The report also highlighted that the mobile cellular phone was the most common device used to access the internet. “Most internet users (78.4 percent) used it to participate in social networks. Those who used the internet to read or download online newspapers, magazines or electronic books amounted to 56.6 percent of internet users,” reads part of the report.
The report also states that internet banking and getting information from government departments’ websites were performed by 8.6 percent and 21.1 percent respectively of internet users.
Interestingly, the report also states that, “In 2014, 85.3% of the population 10 years and over in Botswana used a mobile cellular telephone. Of these individuals, 44.2% were males while 55.8% were females.”
Gaborone had the highest proportion of households with access to the internet at 24.1%, while Kweneng East district and Ngwaketse followed with 11.4% and 7.1% respectively.
Of all households in Botswana, the ICT survey showed that 20.6% of them owned a laptop while 10.9% owned a desktop computer. Gaborone, Kweneng East, South East and Francistown regions had the most households with computers.
In terms of mobile cellular us by highest education level attained, the survey shows that 20.4% of them had completed primary or lower education, while 30.7% and 16.6% of them had completed lower secondary and upper secondary education. Those with tertiary education constituted 23.9% of mobile cellular telephone users.
Fixed wireless was the next most prevalent internet connection used by most households at 9.8%, followed by asymmetric digital subscriber line with 7.3%.
When categorising mobile cellular telephone users by their occupations, the survey showed that 12.2% of users were services and sales workers, 11.6% were of elementary occupations, 5.8% were craft and related trades workers, five percent were professionals, 4.2 percent were plant and machine operators, four percent were technicians and associated professionals, 3.7% were managers.
