ITU: Two billion people online by 2010, publishes stats on digital divide

According to stats published today by the ITU (International Telecommunications Union), 400 million new internet users were added in 2009, taking total tally of internet users worldwide to a special milestone - two billion. If that sounds cheerful, wait till you read the rest of the report, which outlines the digital divide.


Asia, Africa, and the Arab states have less than 25% of their citizens online. That’s because it costs nearly 6-7 times more to afford fixed broadband in terms of purchasing power parity in USD. Mobile services however, are cheaper in developing countries, with an average monthly cost of 15 PPP$ in developing countries compared to around 18 PPP$ in developed countries.

Highlights from the report:
162 million of the 226 million new Internet users in 2010 will be from developing countries.
65% of Europeans are on the Internet, compared to only 9.6% of Africans.
71% of the population in developed countries will be online compared to 21% of the population in developing countries.
In developed countries 65% of people have access to the Internet at home, compared to 13.5% of people in developing countries.
Fixed broadband penetration levels in developing countries remain low: 4.4 subscriptions per 100 people compared to 24.6 in developed countries.
Subscriptions to IMT2000/3G services have increased from 72 million in 2005 to 940 million in 2010.As many as 143 countries are offering IMT2000/3G services commercially, up from 95 countries in 2007.The number of SMSes sent in 2010: 6.1 trillion. In other words, close to 200 000 text messages are sent every