Internet user base to expand to 3 bn by year end: ITU
06 May 2014
Close to 3 billion people will become internet users by the end of 2014, with two-thirds of them being from developing countries, while mobile-cellular subscriptions touch the figure of almost 7 billion by the year end.
According to a report by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) 44 per cent of the world's households would have internet access by the end of 2014.
''The newly released ICT figures confirm once again that information and communication technologies continue to be the key drivers of the information society,'' said ITU secretary-general Hamadoun I. Touré.
''If we want to understand the information society, we have to measure it,'' Brahima Sanou, the Director of ITU's Telecommunication Development Bureau, said. ''Without measurement we cannot track progress or identify gaps which require our attention.''
However only one-third (31 per cent) of households in developing countries would be connected to the internet, as against 78 per cent in developed countries.
The analysis showed that household internet access in developed countries was nearing saturation levels.
Of the 7 billion mobile-cellular subscribers by end-2014, 3.6 billion would be in the Asia-Pacific region.
The increase would come mainly on growth in the developing world where mobile-cellular subscriptions would account for 78 per cent of the world's total.
According to ITU secretary-general Hamadoun Toure, the newly released ICT (information and communications technology) figures confirmed once again that information and communication technologies continued to be the key drivers of the information society.
The three billionth person would probably be in what according to the ITU was a ''developing'' country and would probably use a mobile broadband service, The Register reports. That was because the developing world was now adding internet users at a faster rate than more economically-advanced nations according to the ITU. It was also because mobile broadband growth was out-stripping fixed line services in the developing world.
Mobile broadband remained a huge growth market, with subscriptions set to reach 2.3 billion by the end of 2014, five times more than in 2008, with the Asia-Pacific region alone accounting for a billion mobile broadband subscriptions by the end of the year, but even with that colossal count the region would still only have around 23 per cent of its population online.
This of course, does not mean that developing nations would be laggards. The ITU says ''In 2013, the number of fixed-broadband subscriptions in developing countries overtook the number in developed countries,'' while ''In developing countries, the number of Internet users will have doubled in 5 years, from 974 million in 2009 to 1.9 billion in 2014.''
(Read More: ITU releases 2014 ICT figures)
