Africa is now encircled with high-speed internet cables
The global disparity in fixed broadband access and cost has been revealed by UN figures.
The Central African Republic is the most expensive place to get a fixed broadband connection, costing nearly 40 times the average monthly income there.
Macao in China is the cheapest, costing 0.3% of the average monthly income.
Niger becomes the most expensive place to access communication technologies, when landlines and mobiles are also taken into account.
"Access to broadband in an affordable manner is our greatest challenge," Dr Hamadoun Toure, secretary general of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), told BBC News.
The statistics were released ahead of the UN 2010 Millennium Development Goals Summit in New York on 19 September.
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The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are a set of targets intended to reduce global poverty and improve living standards by 2015.
Specific goals target education, fighting disease and promoting gender equality.
Access to communications technology is a part of one of the targets.
With five years to go until the deadline to achieve the goals, progress remains uneven. Some countries have achieved many of the goals, while others - mostly in the developing world - may not realise any.
Many development experts question how the goals will be achieved and how they will be paid for. Some even question whether the approach is neccessary or helpful.
But Dr Toure said that he believed technologies such as broadband could be used to "accelerate" progress on the goals and help countries achieve them.
Men sell phone credit (Kiwanja) Mobile phones have proliferated throughout Africa and the world
"Unfortunately many observers will say that we run the risk of not meeting the goals. But I think the focus should be on how we meet the goals," he said.
"I am putting ICT [Information and Communication Technologies] as an opportunity of meeting the goals."
In particular, he said, broadband and connectivity could be used to develop e-health and e-education programmes.
He said broadband would allow people in rural and remote areas to access "state of the art" health facilities and doctors.
"You will also be able to ensure that students around the world will have access to the best universities at their fingertips," he said.
"That can only be done if [connectivity] is accessible and affordable."
Claire Godfrey, senior policy advisor for Oxfam, agreed that technology could help accelerate progress on the MDGs but said "the root causes of poverty must be addressed first", including "access to clean water, adequate food, free healthcare and education".
"Rich countries' governments need to meet their aid commitments, with sustainable, well-targeted and predictable aid and they need to help poorer countries to make health care and education free," she told BBC News.
Cheapest fixed line broadband as proportion of monthly income
Rank Country Price as % of monthly income B'band subscriptions per 100 inhabitants...Full story
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