by Mark Ollig
As we draw nearer to the
end of 2013, I thought it might be interesting to check out some numbers
regarding Internet and mobile-broadband usage.
Recently, the
International Telecommunication Union (ITU) published their Information and
Communication Technology (ICT) Facts and Figures report for 2013.
Here’s a question for you:
who has the greater percentage when it comes to using the Internet on a global
scale; women or men?
It turns out, more men
than women are using the Internet. The ICT report reveals 37 percent of all
women are online, as compared with 41 percent of all men.
About 40 percent of the
world’s population, or 2.7 billion people, are online and using the Internet.
For 2013, there are
approximately 6.8 billion mobile-cellular subscriptions throughout the world,
which just about equals the total population on the Earth (7.1 billion).
Slightly more than half (3.5 billion) of these mobile-cellular subscriptions
are located in the Asia-Pacific region.
There are an estimated 750
million households on the Earth connected to the Internet; this represents 41
percent of the world’s households.
In developed world
locations, 78 percent of all households show being connected to the Internet,
as compared with only 28 percent in developing world regions.
Of the 1.1 billion
households in the world not connected to the Internet, 90 percent are located
in developing world regions.
In Europe, 77 percent of
the households are connected to the Internet, while in Africa, only 7 percent
are.
In North America, 61
percent of all households have an Internet connection.
Surprisingly, there are
960 million households in the world without an Internet connection.
When the ITU reported on
the world’s high-speed broadband Internet access, they defined it as a data
transfer speed of at least 10 Megabits per second (Mbps).
Asian countries found to
have high-speed broadband Internet availability included China, Japan, the
Republic of Korea, and Hong Kong.
There are also several
European countries offering high-speed broadband Internet, including Portugal,
Iceland, and Bulgaria.
In contrast, less than 10
percent of the fixed (wired) broadband subscriptions in Africa offer Internet
speed of even 2 Mbps.
Mobile-broadband is the
common term used for wireless Internet access.
It was projected by the
end of 2013; more than 2 billion mobile-broadband subscriptions would be in use
worldwide.
For all of North, Central,
South America, and the Caribbean, there are 460 million mobile-broadband
subscriptions, representing a 48 percent penetration rate within the
population.
In Europe, a reported 422
million subscriptions for mobile-broadband are active, which represents a 68
percent penetration.
In the Commonwealth of
Independent States, which include Russia, Ukraine, Georgia, Moldova,
Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, and six others, there are 129 million mobile-broadband
subscriptions, representing a 46 percent penetration rate.
Arab states, including
Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Algeria, Morocco, Iraq, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates,
and 15 others, have 71 million mobile-broadband subscriptions.
In Africa, there are 93
million mobile-broadband subscriptions, representing an 11 percent penetration.
The Asia-Pacific region
has the most mobile-broadband subscriptions, with a reported 895 million. This
represents a 22 percent penetration rate.
The ITU report says the
total number of mobile-broadband subscriptions has increased from 268 million
in 2007, to an incredible 2.1 billion in 2013.
Africa is reported with
the highest mobile-broadband growth rate during the past three years; from 2
percent in 2010, to 11 percent in 2013.
Another study by the large
communications company, Ericsson states mobile phone subscriptions by the year
2019 will reach an incredible 9.3 billion.
VeriSign, a global leader
in providing Internet domain names, reported 265 million Internet domain names
were registered throughout the world during 2013. This represents an 8 percent
increase from last year.
Per the Internet Stats
Today website, China has reached 604 million Internet users as of September
2013. The majority of these users are accessing the Internet via mobile
smartphones.
Internet World Stats is
predicting global Internet usage by 2020 will be approaching a 75 to 85 percent
world-wide penetration.
The Islamic Republic News
Agency (IRNA), reports more than 45 million people in Iran were using the
Internet as of March 2013.
The website for the ITU’s
telecom page can be found at http://tinyurl.com/bytes-itu.
