By DT News Network. T he world is slowly but surely getting online, according to a new study from the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). There are now 3.2 billion people online, representing 43.4 per cent of the global population, ITU, the United Nation's information and communications age
The world is slowly but surely getting online, according to a new study from the International Telecommunication Union (ITU).
There are now 3.2 billion people online, representing 43.4 per cent of the global population, ITU, the United Nation’s information and communications agency announced Monday. A whopping 95pc of the world’s population is now covered by a cellular connection and there are nearly 7.1bn cellular connections worldwide, the agency reported.
The ITU evaluated 167 global economies for its latest report, which estimated that by the end of 2015, 46pc of households around the world will have an Internet connection, up from 30pc in 2010. In the developed world, 81.3pc of households have home Internet, compared to 34.1pc of homes in the emerging markets and 6.7pc in the 48 UN-designated least developed countries.
“Fastest growth continues to be seen in mobile broadband, with the number of mobile-broadband subscriptions worldwide having grown more than four-fold in five years, from 0.8 billion in 2010 to an estimated 3.5bn in 2015,” the ITU said. “The number of fixed-broadband subscriptions has risen much more slowly, to an estimated 0.8bn today.”
In a country-by-country analysis, Korea was ranked top by the ITU for having the best “composite measurement” of Internet access, use, and skills. It was followed by Denmark and Iceland; the US ranks in the top 30, but well behind those countries.
Looking ahead, the ITU predicts that 56pc of households worldwide will have Internet access by 2020, topping its goal of 55pc. When it comes to the number of Internet users, however, the ITU believes 53pc of the global population will be online in 2020, lower than its goal of 60pc.
On the other hand, 350 million people around the world still live in areas where there is no Internet connection available, an issue that several technology giants are tackling. Facebook is arguably one of the leaders in that trend with its Internet.org initiative, now known as Free Basics, which provides free or cheap access to Internet services in emerging markets. But it also intends to beam Internet service to large parts of Sub-Saharan Africa.
