ITU today said growth in Internet use has slowed down, posting 6.9 percent growth in 2015 against 7.4 percent in 2014.
The number of Internet users in developing countries has almost doubled in the past five years (2010-2015), with two thirds of all people online now living in the developing world.
The number of mobile broadband subscriptions rose from 0.8 billion in 2010 to 3.5 billion in 2015. The number of fixed broadband subscriptions has reached 0.8 billion.
3G coverage
3G population coverage has reached 69 percent in 2015 against 45 percent in 2011, according to ITU.
3G rural population coverage has reached 29 percent, while 3G urban population coverage touched 89 percent, said ITU.
34 percent of households in developing countries have Internet access, compared with more than 80 percent in developed countries in 2015. In least developed countries (LDCs), 7 percent of households have Internet access, compared with the world average of 46 percent.
Internet penetration in developing countries stands at 35 percent; LDCs lag behind with only 10 percent. In Africa, one in 5 people use the Internet today, compared to almost 2 in 5 people in Asia Pacific, and 3 in 5 people in the CIS.
Mobile broadband penetration in Europe and the Americas is around 78 active subscriptions per 100 inhabitants. Africa is the only region where mobile broadband penetration remains below 20 percent.
Fixed broadband penetration remains at less than 1 percent in LDCs. Africa and Arab States stand out as the regions with the fewest fixed-broadband subscriptions per 100 inhabitants, at less than 1 and less than 4, respectively.
Fixed broadband uptake slow in developing countries and particularly in LDCs, where penetration rates are now at 7 percent and less than 1 percent, respectively.
Broadband speed
Korea is the leading country in terms of broadband speed followed by France, Iceland, Denmark, Andorra, Switzerland, United Kingdom, Belgium, Japan, Sweden, Spain, Finland, Portugal, Norway and the United States, according to ITU’s flagship annual Measuring the Information Society Report, released today.
3.2 billion people are now online, representing 43.4 percent of the global population, while mobile-cellular subscriptions have reached almost 7.1 billion worldwide, with over 95 percent of the global population now covered
by a mobile-cellular signal.
