One third of the world’s population will be online by the end of the year, according to United Nations statistics (PDF).
The number of people online has doubled to two billion in the last five years, the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) said. The ITU believes that broadband is a “transformational technology” that can be used to spur development.
Of the 226m new net users that have come online this year, more than two thirds are from developing countries. The report suggests that 71% of people in western countries will be online by the end of 2010, compared to just 21% in developing countries.
Although broadband use is increasing it has been outstripped by mobile connections. The ITU estimates that there will be 5.3 billion mobile subscriptions by the end of 2010, of which 3.8 billion will be in the developing world. It says that more than 90% of the world’s population now has access to a mobile network.
The Nokia 1100, with 250 million users, is the most popular phone in the world.
The Market Information and Statistics Division of the UN’s Telecommunication Development Bureau (BDT) collects, harmonizes and disseminates more than 100 telecommunication indicators from over 200 economies worldwide.
