The Covid-19 pandemic has had a profound impact on the health and livelihoods of individuals and communities around the world. In these trying times, connectivity has emerged as a lifeline for society by enabling many social and economic activities to continue amid unprecedented social and travel restrictions, supporting new ways for enterprises to operate safely and facilitating effective response measures from government and other stakeholders. 

Mobile has been particularly instrumental during this period, keeping people connected and underpinning new services in response to the pandemic. Around the world, the exceptional scale and utility of mobile networks and services have:

enabled people to work and learn remotely, stay in touch with loved ones, and perform many other everyday activities online

supported innovative health solutions, such as remote patient monitoring and contact tracing, to control the spread of the virus

provided a platform for people to access digital financial services, given efforts to reduce the reliance on cash

facilitated the safe and efficient distribution of social welfare to vulnerable people

generated valuable insights on mobility patterns from anonymised and aggregated mobile big data to inform government response measures at various stages of the pandemic.