1.6 billion on the Internet, 5.3 billion on mobile

Oct 20, 2010 by Dirk Singer

Some stats from ‘the South African Mashable’ Memeburn – Internet use to hit two billion worldwide by the end of this year (according to the International Telecommunication Union).

The ITU says that 1.6 billion had home Internet access by in 2010, up from 1.4 billion last year.   That figure should pass two billion over the next few months, which means that around 30% of the planet will have home Internet access.

That obviously varies by continent, from 9.6/100 in Africa to 2/3 of the population (65/100) in Europe.

In comparison though 90% of the world’s population is within reach of a mobile phone network.  By the end of the year, there should be 5.3 billion mobile subscriptions.   In other words, the majority of the world’s population now has a mobile/cell phone.

Most of that growth is in the developing world – while there are now 116 mobile phones per 100 inhabitants in the developed world, there is still room for growth in the developing world where penetration is 68%.

Related articles

• 6.1 trillion text messages to be sent in 2010 (news.cnet.com)
• Mobile Networks Penetrate 90% Of World’s Population (informationweek.com)