ISLAMABAD ( MEDIA )
Over 50 percent of the global population will have Internet access within three years’ time, said ITU in the 2014 edition of the State of Broadband report.
More than 40 percent of the world’s people are already online, with the number of Internet users rising from 2.3 billion in 2013 to 2.9 billion by the end of this year.
ITU said over 2.3 billion people will access mobile broadband by end 2014 and 7.6 billion within the next five years. 1.9 billion people are now active on social networks.
Republic of Korea has the world’s highest household broadband penetration at over 98 percent, up from 97 percent last year.
Monaco surpasses last year’s champion, Switzerland, as the world leader in fixed broadband penetration, at over 44 percent of the population.
There are now four economies (Monaco, Switzerland, Denmark, Netherlands) where penetration exceeds 40 percent, up from just one (Switzerland) in 2013.
ITU said US ranks 19 globally in terms of number of people online, ahead of other OECD countries like Germany (20) and Australia (21), but behind the United Kingdom (12), Japan (15) and Canada (16).
The US has slid from 20 to 24 place for fixed broadband subscriptions per capita, just behind Japan but ahead of Macao (China) and Estonia.
In total, there are now 77 countries where over 50 percent of the population is online, up from 70 in 2013.
The top ten countries for Internet use are all located in Europe, with Iceland ranked first in the world with 96.5 percent of people online.