International Telecommunications Union, Geneva. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
A report by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) has revealed 3.2 billion people will be online by the end of this year, with two billion of those in the developing world.
However, four billion of the world’s population will still be offline, which represents two thirds of the people living in those areas.
The news is not positive for the least developed countries either. Only 89 million out of a total 940 million users are predicted to be online by the end of this year, representing a 9.5 per cent penetration rate. The least developed countries include much of Africa plus Nepal, Afghanistan and Bangladesh, according to the UN.
The report also looked into the types of internet connections around the world and revealed that by the end of this year, there will be seven billion mobile devices being used to access online services. Although 78 per cent of people in the US and Europe have access to a mobile device, Africa lags way behind with just 17.4 per cent of the continent’s population having access to mobile broadband.
About Mark Milliman
Mark Milliman is a Principal Consultant at Inphotonics Research driving the adoption and assisting local governments to plan, build, operate, and lease access open-access municipal broadband networks. Additionally, he works with entrepreneurs and venture capitalists to increase the value of their intellectual capital through the creation of strategic product plans and execution of innovative marketing strategies. With more than 22 years of experience in the telecommunications industry that began at AT&T Bell Laboratories, Mark has built fiber, cable, and wireless networks around the world to deliver voice, video, and data services. His thorough knowledge of all aspects of service delivery from content creation to the design, operation, and management of the network is utilized by carriers and equipment manufacturers. Mark conceived and developed one of the industry's first multi-service provisioning platform and is multiple patent holder. He is active in the IEEE as a senior member. Mark received his B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Iowa State University and M.S. in Electrical Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University.
