South Africa’s information and communications technology (ICT) development landscape has moved up one position in the International Telecommunications Union’s (ITU’s) latest Measuring the Information Society (MIS) report rankings.

The ICT development index (IDI) 2012 chapter, which was released on Monday, saw 157 countries pitted against each other in terms of their ICT development, including the level and evolution relative to other countries; the progress in both developed and developing countries; the digital divide; and the extent to which countries could make use of ICTs to enhance growth and development, based on available capabilities and skills.

South Africa scored an overall ranking of 84, with an IDI value of 3.95, during 2012, up from its position at 85, with an IDI value of 3.67 in 2011.

Among the 38 African countries examined, South Africa was behind only the Seychelles and Mauritius, which had rankings of 64 and 72 at IDI values of 4.75 and 4.55 respectively, but ahead of Botswana at 108, Namibia at 109, Zimbabwe at 115, Zambia at 132 and Mozambique at 148.

Seychelles and Mauritius were listed as the only African countries with an IDI above the global average, while only South Africa and Cape Verde, besides the above, scored IDI values above the developing-country average.

Zimbabwe and Zambia were highlighted among the most dynamic countries – those that reported above-average positive changes in ranking or IDI values – in the IDI 2012, having moved up four and five places respectively in the overall ranking.

Zimbabwe’s mobile cellular penetration went from 72% in 2011 to 97% in 2012, while Zambia reported an increase from 61% to 76%.

Despite an unimproved overall ranking of 116, Kenya had made significant progress within the access sub-index, recording the strongest growth in international Internet bandwidth per Internet user, from just 4 500 Mb/s in 2011, to 24 000 Mb/s in 2012, becoming the African country with the largest amount of international Internet bandwidth per Internet user.

Russia, also listed among the top dynamic countries, moved up a value increase of 0.41 compared with the global average increase of 0.2, topping the list of the Brics countries with a ranking of 40, followed by Brazil at 62, China at 78 and India, which ranked 121.

The skills sub index, which examined a country’s capability to use ICT effectively to maximise the impact of the sector, rated South Africa at 95, ahead of its neighbouring countries, as well as India, which ranked 117.

The sub index positioned Brazil at 75, China at 93 and Russia at 23.

South Africa remained behind its Brics counterparts, again barring India, within the access sub index, which rated the level of networked infrastructure and access to ICTs in a country, and the use sub index, which examined the intensity or level of use in the society. South Africa had ranked 85 and 75 respectively.

The bottom nineteen countries in the IDI 2012 were all African countries, with Niger in last position globally with an IDI of 0.99.

The ITU noted that mobile-cellular penetration continued to progress throughout the region, with eighteen countries recording double-digit growth rates from 2011 to 2012. However, only eight African countries had achieved more than 100% mobile-cellular penetration by end 2012 – with Eritrea at just 5%.

By early 2013, no fewer than 93 economies of the 157 surveyed had passed the 100% mobile-cellular penetration mark.

The countries in the top ten of the IDI were predominantly from Europe, Asia and the Pacific. The Republic of Korea, recording an IDI value of 8.57, continued to lead the world in terms of ICT developments, followed by Sweden, Iceland, Denmark, Finland and Norway.