Data Mobility as a Key Element of Global Connectivity

CONTEXT AND JUSTIFICATION

The world in general, and communications as a platform for interaction between two or more entities, is becoming increasingly interconnected along with the global economy driven by the development of international trade, transport, digital infrastructures and growing data/content flows.
Like the NATIONAL CENTER RUSSIA, fr om which we borrow some of the concepts, we recognize that recent major discoveries and technological innova- tions mean that today no decision or initiative of any kind — be it political, social, economic or sports-related, large or small — can confine itself to limited communi- cations. Today, no entity can afford to escape the public spotlight if it wants to fully participate in the life of the global village and use its information and communi- cation networks. By the same token, no entity can expect to develop and prosper unless it meets technological, infrastructural and digital standards that set the pace for our world.
This leads to the question of how to designate this set of elements, decisions, initiatives or information contained in the “package” transmitted in the course of interaction between two or more entities. Whether such elements are transferred from point A to point B or whether they serve many people or people use them, they are called DATA. Their ability to be simultaneously in different places in real

time and undergo changes during transmission and reception is called MOBILITY. So DATA MOBILITY can be defined as a rapid unhindered transmission of infor- mation across both geographical and digital borders, as well as refer to the growing importance of such mobility in an increasingly interdependent global economy.
Such data mobility, resulting also from the ability to use services on the move, links up our world, consisting of countries that are so far apart and so diverse, into a homogeneous whole, with elements that now are separated by as little as one incredible click that opens for entity A at point A a door to entity B at point B, how- ever distant, and vice versa. This is the reason why data mobility is so important as the link between entities, services and opportunities that affect other entities’ lives, and which are (or should be) accessible to them regardless of their location on the planet.
Our discussion topic, DATA MOBILITY AS A KEY ELEMENT IN GLOBAL CONNECTIVITY, is part of a broader field of COMMUNICATIONS. We will try to consider it through the lens of our methodological framework by defining the key issues, reviewing papers and documents on the subject, and finally defining key concepts.
PART 1. METHODOLOGY

I-1    — Problem framing
The analysis of DATA MOBILITY AS A KEY ELEMENT OF GLOBAL CON-
NECTIVITY in our context should consider the overall importance of infrastruc- tural, technological and digital elements that we exchange, enabling us to be aware of what is going on in the world and, at the same time, to report our performance in real time, wherever we may be. In other words, is data mobility vital for those who want to succeed in today’s socio-economic conditions?
On the other hand, it raises another specific question: what happens to an entity that in the course of its life or activities does not consider or resorts to data mobility enough as an element of global connectivity? These are just some of the questions that need to be addressed to understand how the willingness to develop (+) or the lack of it (-) affects every moral, physical or human institution in the face of the great technological, digital and infrastructural transformations of our time.
I-2    — Literature review
The review of relevant literature included reports and publications on data mobility as a key element of global connectivity as well as on the overall state of communications in the world.
According to the Measuring Digital Development: Facts and Figures, a report by the International Telecommunications Union, which is the United Nations specialized agency for information and communication technologies (ICT), fixed

broadband networks carried over 80% of global Internet traffic in 2022, highlight- ing their significance for professional and domestic needs. A later, about 2.6 bil- lion people, or one third of the world’s population, still had no Internet access. Two years before that, ITU’s Measuring Digital Development: Facts and Figures 2021 reported that 2.9 billion people, or about 37% of the global population, had been offline and never used the Internet.
In 2022, the global average monthly data usage was 257 GB per fixed-line sub- scription, compared with 11 GB per mobile subscription. In low-income countries, monthly traffic on the fixed broadband network averaged 161 GB versus just 1 GB on the mobile network.
The share of the population using the Internet is around 90% in Europe, the Commonwealth of Independent States and the Americas, about two-thirds in the Arab States and Asia-Pacific regions use the Internet, in line with the global aver- age, and only 37% in Africa. This gap underscores the disparities in global con- nectivity and is a clear sign of the digital divide. All this data, of course, provides a wealth of information to be considered in any future initiatives.
I-3    — Terms and definitions
The concepts of Mobility, Data, Key Element and Global Connectivity need to be properly defined to better understand the issue in question. While Mobil- ity implies the fast and unhindered transmission from one point to another, Data refers to the information content (a set of elements).
In terms of digital technology, data can be also defined simply as a set of infor- mation. Key Element means an essential element. Global Connectivity refers to the idea of connecting and harmonizing to multiple individual items into an integral whole.
Based on the above, the topic, DATA MOBILITY AS A KEY ELEMENT OF GLOBAL CONNECTIVITY, can be reformulated as “Fast transmission of infor- mation is essential to create an integrated global space wh ere all the people can co-exist”.
Having defined the concepts, we are ready to proceed to discuss the topic itself.
PART 2. DATA MOBILITY AS A KEY ELEMENT OF GLOBAL CONNECTIVITY

Today, the development of interactive technology is dominated by four inter- twined trends: Social Media, Digitalization, Cloud Computing and Big Data that will apparently continue to define the technological landscape for many years to come. Considered through the lens of Data Mobility as Key Element of Global Connectivity, each of these trends can provide insights into available opportunities

and, therefore, redefine the topic as follows: the rapid transmission of information, essential for connecting five continents in real time, turns the world, despite huge distances, into a closely integrated space inhabited by 8.026 billion people (as of 2023). Thus, the analysis of each trend in the context of this topic helps to illumi- nate the following aspects:
I-1    — Opportunities 1. Data mobility as a key element of global connectivity
Let’s consider some examples to illustrate our point.
Social networks and e-mail are a set of personal data (information and con- tacts) associated with a personal address, to which thousands of units of informa- tion (content) are delivered, aher being processed via databases, in real time fr om all over the world. In this way, two people, one in St. Petersburg and the other in the remotest region of Burkina Faso, can communicate with each other almost instantly, much to everyone’s astonishment and to their own perfect satisfaction.
Apart from text communications, social media offer even more advanced modes of interaction: video calls and Web 2.0 technologies that enable users to interact not only with website content, but also with each other in real time. Con- sidering that half of the world’s population (about 4 billion people) generate billions of data units (Big Data) which are instantly collected and processed, data mobil- ity plays a huge role in fulfilling the needs of every individual. This enables direct (instant and smooth) communication in a shared environment between people, one of whom, for instance, lives in Greenland and the other in South Africa, thus turning the world into a small living room wh ere Greenlanders and South Africans can have a face-to-face conversation through the magic of social media and big data.
Financial technologies are another powerful example. Fintech solutions, such as Wave, which contributed to the rapid proliferation of digital currencies and fast cross-border payments, demonstrated that money could be stored as data on a small card that one can carry around and use to make payments or withdraw cash whenever and wherever necessary.
I-2    — Opportunities 2. Data mobility as a catalyst of international cooperation
Mobility and the sharing of data on Afghanistan’s decade-long conflict, eco-
nomic collapse, climate disasters and human rights violations were tangible evi- dence that led UNICEF, in collaboration with its partners, to set up a mechanism to prevent the collapse of the country’s healthcare system, pay salaries, distribute essential supplies to thousands of health workers and treat children at risk of mal- nutrition. UNICEF’s Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) program is also com- mitted to finding local, yet sustainable, solutions to major challenges (according to the organization’s website, www.unicef.org, in a publication dated 08 January 2024). There many more examples of similar collaborations based on mobile data

systems that promote closer engagement between countries and international organizations.
I-3    — Challenges
Despite the numerous and compelling benefits of data mobility, some con- cerns still remain. What effective and sustainable solutions can be found to the issues of cybercrime, personal data protection and language barriers on the web? How can we overcome the digital divide, which is a factor of underdevelopment, considering that the technological revolution is based on the idea of providing equitable access to the benefits of data mobility? Given that the same tools that underpin technological progress are used to spread disinformation, is there a way to creating a body capable of making this data fully reliable? All these questions show that along with the amazing advances data mobility, there are quite a few problems that need to be dealt with.
CONCLUSIONS

Without claiming to have settled all the disputes on a subject as long as it is fascinating, we can undoubtedly say that data mobility is more than essential to global connectivity. Thousands of content items are produced every second of our lives, collected, processed, and conveyed to their recipients at high speed. This is a major step forward in the evolution of technological interactivity between people. However, as with all human endeavors, this advancement requires a few adjust- ments if it is to remain a technological instrument in every respect.