More than half the world is still offline

Life

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While it may seem like half the world is chasing Pokemon right now, the other half is not even on the Internet.

About 3.9 billion people, or 53% of the global population, will still be offline at the end of this year, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) estimates. Even in Europe, the most connected region, 20.9% of all people aren’t online. In Africa, the least connected continent, 74.9% are offline.

Those figures are part of the annual statistical report from the agency, which is part of the United Nations. The report also showed there’s still a huge divide between rich and poor countries, and a growing gap between men and women, when it comes to Internet access. It shows that efforts by companies like Google and Facebook to get all people connected could take a long time.

While more than four out of five people in developed countries use the Internet, just over 40% of those in developing countries have access. In the ITU’s least developed countries – places like Haiti, Yemen, Myanmar and Ethiopia – just 15.2% of the people are online.

Also, fewer women than men are on the Internet, and that difference is getting worse. The worldwide difference between Internet user penetration for males and females is 12.2%, up from 11% in 2013, the ITU says. It’s shrunk significantly in developed countries, from 5.8% to just 2.8%, but grown in poorer places.

Cost makes it harder to get online in some countries. The ITU says entry-level Internet access has become affordable in many developing countries since 2011 but remains unaffordable in most of the poorest countries. By the ITU’s definition, that means internet service costs more than 5% of average monthly income.

Mobile is the most common form of broadband access and is growing at double-digit rates in developing countries, hitting nearly 41% of the population this year while topping 90% in developed countries.

Despite its potential, IoT isn’t a big part of the Internet picture yet in most places. Mobile subscriptions for people still dwarf M2M (machine-to-machine) connections by 22:1 worldwide, though in some countries M2M is gaining ground. Most notable is Sweden, where there are 50 M2M subscriptions for every 100 mobile subscription. New Zealand and Norway come next but are both below 20 M2M links per 100 mobile.

IDG News Service

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