50% of world population to be online by 2017 - UN

ITRealms:

Over 50 per cent of the global population will have Internet access within three years’ time, says the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) via its latest State of Broadband report, ITRealms gathered.

ITU also said this would be achieved with mobile broadband over smartphones and tablets now the fastest growing technology in human history, according to the 2014 edition of the State of Broadband. 

The report released Monday in New York at the 10th meeting of the Broadband Commission for Digital Development the report reveals that more than 40 per cent of the world’s people are already online, with the number of Internet users rising from 2.3 billion in 2013 to 2.9 billion by the end of this year.

Over 2.3 billion people will access mobile broadband by end 2014, climbing steeply to a predicted 7.6 billion within the next five years. There are now over three times as many mobile broadband connections as there are conventional fixed broadband subscriptions. The popularity of broadband-enabled social media applications continues to soar, with 1.9 billion people now active on social networks.

Produced annually by the Broadband Commission, The State of Broadband is a unique global snapshot of broadband network access and affordability, with country-by country data measuring broadband access against key advocacy targets set by the 54 members of the Broadband Commission. 

Remmy Nweke:
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