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Connecting theunconnectedICT is increasingly recognized as an essential means of boosting social andeconomic development. We need to scale for impact in order to make the full rangeof possibilities in the Networked Society affordable and accessible to all.From boosting livelihoods and promotingfinancial inclusion and gender equality toimproved access to health, education,government services and more, ICT is anessential part of every aspect of our lives.It also helps advance equality, democracy,governance and freedom of expression.Today those benefits are available tomore people than ever before with therapid growth of mobile communications.Smartphones are becoming increasinglyaffordable. This means people inregions with low levels of internet penetration,such as sub-Saharan Africa, will beable to take advantage of full connectivityfor the first time via their smartphones.Connecting the unconnectedDespite these positive trends, an estimated2.5 billion people remain unconnected tomobile devices, and 4.4 billion of the worldpopulation still do not have access to internet.In a business as usual scenario, 1.7billion will still be unconnected to mobiledevices in 2020. This digital divide is moreprevalent in rural areas and affects theleast-developed countries and marginalizedpopulations disproportionately.In connecting the unconnected, thereare huge opportunities for business, andsociety, but this transformation will nothappen on its own. Through use of ourtechnology, we combine mobility, broadbandand cloud services to improveaccess to healthcare, education andlivelihoods around the world. If affordableand fully accessible, the internet extendsopportunities to all, allowing everyone tobenefit from the digital age on more equalterms, which leads to positive impacts forbusiness, people and society.Greater efforts are needed by industryand governments to close this gap as marketforces are not sufficient in the nearterm in order to address the three mainbarriers to progress: infrastructure, affordabilityand usage.While strong economic growth in thedeveloping world has helped lift millionsout of poverty, global population growth,modern lifestyles and consumption arenow stretching the limits of the planet’sresources. ICT has radically transformedcommunication and daily life, opening upnew possibilities for helping to put theworld on a more sustainable path.Making a differenceWe apply our innovation and technology todevelop solutions in response to globalchallenges; the use of M-Commerce as aninnovative business platform to addressfinancial inclusion is just one example.In our belief that technology is a forcefor good, we are also committed to makinga contribution, in partnership with others,to address the many humanitarian crisesthe world faces, from refugees to healthand education to disaster relief.85% of the growthin 3G and 4G connectivitywill be in Asia Pacific, theMiddle East and Africa.”Source: Ericsson Mobility Report(November 2014)Measuring our impactIn 2013, Ericsson set an objective to positively impact 2.5 millionpeople directly through our Technology for Good initiatives by2016. In 2014, we exceeded that goal, positively impacting over4 million people. This has inspired us to revise our objective to5.5 million people positively impacted by 2016.While often difficult to establish exact causality betweenICT and a specific outcome, we have a number of ongoing monitoringand evaluation activities. For the time being, we havedetermined that the most reliable indicator to track our progressis to measure the number of people positively impacted by ourTechnology for Good programs, the additional people coveredby Ericsson-enabled mobile broadband networks in low-andmedium-HDI (Human Development Index) countries, as definedby the UN Development Programme, and the number of peoplewith increased access to financial services resulting fromdeployment of Ericsson technology and solutions.Ericsson | Sustainability and Corporate Responsibility Report 201441