Video Summary: How Prepared are Countries Around the World to Deal with the Constraints of COVID-19?

New research from Digital Planet analyzed 42 countries on their digital and social distance readiness during the COVID-19 pandemic. The team of researchers at Digital Planet asked the question: how prepared are countries across the world to work in a “socially distant mode”?

This mode would draw upon multiple digital platforms: using telecommunications and apps, such as Zoom and Skype, or, occasionally, Spatial, that specializes in meetings using holograms for organizing remote workers and exchanging information; using e-commerce to get provisions to remote workers as retail establishments are shut or curtailed; accessing digital media – especially those that can withstand a drop in advertising revenues — to keep people informed and make good business decisions.

However, having these platforms available is no guarantee that socially distant work gets done seamlessly. The Internet would need to be able to hold up to the spikes in digital traffic, especially with the simultaneous use of high-bandwidth applications, such as video conferencing and server capacities across multiple applications. In addition, a proliferation and use of digital money options would be essential to handle the surges in the need to make payments. To reduce the costs a country must incur by putting the face-to-face economy on pause, policymakers and technology companies must understand the gaps to be closed and best practices and benchmarks to guide action.

Watch the video summary below for more information on this research report.