Assessment of current status of ICT among households in Colombo district, Sri Lanka

Abstract

ICT has become an inseparable component in the development of individuals and countries. This study focuses on Colombo district due to its importance to Sri Lanka, and investigates ICT device availability and its usage among Colombo district households. The study uses an extract of the countrywide assessment of ICT access and usage by households and individuals, on current status in Sri Lanka conducted by ICTA. The available data of 426 households were used for the research. Descriptive statistics, odds ratios, cross-tabulation and logistic regression were used for the analysis. The study revealed that a large proportion of the population in Colombo still do not use ICT devices/facilities such as mobile phones and mobile/wireless broadband. The reason for their non-usage is that they do not consider the facility as essential. It was also revealed that most of the households use ICT devices/facilities only if they own it and not from anywhere outside. Mobile phones have been identified as the most used device for education, work and gaming. ICT usage is observed to decline with age. Males’ ICT usage is found to be higher than females’ usage. Those employed have 2.331 times the odds of using a smartphone compared to the unemployed. The odds of using Facebook is 58 times higher for smartphone users than for non-users. Internet and smartphone usage were also observed to increase with higher education. The average smart phone equipment cost is close to Rs. 30,000. Furthermore, 81% of the households have gone through a virus attack. The study concluded on the note that there is still plenty of room for ICT-based development in Colombo. The usage of ICT devices/facilities is still to be encouraged among females, the unemployed, individuals with lower education levels and the older population in the district.