The GSMA has warned that the world risks a new AI divide unless urgent measures are taken to make smartphones affordable for billions of people in low- and middle-income countries, including across Sub-Saharan Africa. More than 3.4 billion people still do not use mobile internet, despite more than 90 percent of them already living within mobile broadband coverage, the organisation said when launching its State of Mobile Internet Connectivity (SOMIC) Report 2026 in New York.
Smartphone affordability at the center of digital inclusion
Handset affordability is the single biggest barrier to mobile internet adoption across the surveyed low- and middle-income countries, followed by a lack of digital skills. By the end of 2025, an entry-level internet-enabled handset cost the poorest 20 percent of people in these countries the equivalent of 44 percent of their average monthly income, rising to 76 percent in Sub-Saharan Africa. The GSMA said those costs are expected to climb further as component prices rise.
Rising component costs and market consequences
The report flagged a sharp rise in the cost of smartphone memory and chipsets, driven by global demand for AI infrastructure and data centres, as a growing threat to digital inclusion. Memory prices more than doubled between the third quarter of 2025 and the first quarter of 2026, before rising by a further 80 to 90 percent in the second quarter of 2026, according to data from Counterpoint Research cited in the report. Global smartphone shipments are forecast to suffer their largest annual decline on record, driven primarily by the collapse of the sub-$100 handset segment, with emerging markets expected to be hardest hit.
GSMA Director General Vivek Badrinath warned that the greatest risk was not simply an AI divide between countries but one between people who can afford to participate in the digital economy and those who cannot. “The current memory price increases make this a clear and present danger,” he said, calling for coordinated action from policymakers, mobile operators, device manufacturers and component suppliers.
The GSMA is calling on chipset and memory manufacturers to increase the availability of affordable components for entry-level handsets and to engage with the wider mobile ecosystem, policymakers and multilateral financial institutions on solutions. The report noted that efforts by operators and manufacturers, including the GSMA’s Handset Affordability Coalition, have so far been insufficient to restore previously achievable price points.
Until a year ago, GSMA analysis showed that cutting the price of entry-level smartphones to $30 could have made devices affordable for almost 1.6 billion people, with a $20 price point extending affordability to around 2.2 billion people living within mobile broadband coverage. The report states those price points are now out of reach.
Usage trends and economic stakes
Globally, 4.8 billion people now use mobile internet on their own device, but growth is slowing. Around 160 million people came online in 2025, down from 190 million the previous year, while 3.1 billion people continue to live within mobile broadband coverage without using mobile internet — the majority of them without an internet-enabled device. Previous GSMA analysis estimates that closing the mobile usage gap would generate $3.5 trillion in additional GDP between 2023 and 2030, with more than 90 percent of those benefits flowing to low- and middle-income countries.
The GSMA’s findings underline an urgent need for coordinated industry and policy responses to preserve recent gains in digital inclusion and to prevent an affordability-driven divide in access to AI-enabled services.
