Just sharing these figuress downloaded from a Tunis 2005-related website... FN
http://www.itu.int/wsis/tunis/newsroom/stats/index.html
ASIA-PACIFIC
The world’s most diverse region, Asia-Pacific’s 41 economies span 30% of the world’s land mass, encompass 3’500 languages, and are home to 57% of the world’s population (or 3.6 billion people).
Nowhere is the digital divide more pronounced. Internet penetration ranges from below 1% in countries like Bangladesh, Cambodia and Lao, to above 65% in countries like Australia and the Republic of Korea. Mobile penetration ranges from below 1% in countries like Bhutan, Myanmar, Nepal and Papua New Guinea to 90% or more in countries like Hong Kong (China) and Singapore.
China remains the region’s powerhouse. During 2004, the country added an average 5.4 million new mobile subscribers every month.
China already represents almost 50% of the entire Asian mobile market in terms of subscriber numbers, yet domestic penetration still hovers at around just 25%. That translates into another one billion more potential mobile customers.
India has overtaken China to become one of the region’s fastest-growing mobile markets, with growth rates of over 90% per annum every year since 1999. With just total mobile penetration rates of just over 4%, potential for growth is enormous.
The Republic of Korea leads the world in broadband penetration, with high-speed lines serving more than a quarter of the population.
Did you know that . . . ?
Figures can paint a striking picture of the ICT landscape around the world. ITU provides some interesting snapshots, drawn from its 2004 ICT World Telecommunication Indicators Database.
Internet
* In 2004, less than 3 out of every 100 Africans use the Internet, compared with an average of 1 out of every 2 inhabitants of the G8 countries (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the UK and the US).
* There are roughly around the same total number of Internet users in the G8 countries as in the whole rest of the world combined:
* 429 million Internet users in G8 * 444 million Internet users in non-G8
* The G8 countries are home to just 15% of the world’s population - but almost 50% of the world’s total Internet users.
* It is estimated that top 20 countries in terms of Internet bandwidth are home to roughly 80% of all Internet users worldwide.
* There are more than 8 times as many Internet users in the US than on the entire African continent.
* There are more than three times as many Internet users in Japan as on the entire African continent.
* There are more than twice as many Internet users in Germany than on the entire African continent.
* The entire African continent - home to over 50 countries - has fewer Internet users than France alone.
* There are more Internet users in Seoul (Republic of Korea), than all of sub-Saharan Africa, excluding South Africa.
* There are more Internet users in London than in the whole of Pakistan.
* Switzerland, host of the first World Summit on the Information Society, has five times the Internet penetration rate of Tunisia, host of the second Summit.
* Discrepancies in international Internet bandwidth - the critical infrastructure that dictates the speed at which websites in other countries can be accessed - are nothing short of astounding. Tiny Denmark has more than twice the international Internet bandwidth that the whole of Latin American and the Caribbean combined.
* The high cost of international bandwidth is often a major constraint, with developing countries often having to pay the full cost of a link to a hub in a developed country. More than 40 countries have less than 10Mbps of international Internet bandwidth, whereas in Belgium, a 9Mbps ADSL high-speed Internet package is available for just EUR 60 a month.
* There are still 30 countries with an Internet penetration of less than 1%
Mobile
* The 14% of the world’s population that lives in the G8 countries accounts for 34% of the world’s total mobile users.
Fixed
* Of Africa’s 26 million fixed lines, over 75% are found in just 6 of the 55 African nations.
* Africa has an average of 3 fixed lines per 100 people.
* The Americas region has an average of 34 fixed lines per 100 people.
* Europe and the CIS has an average of 40 fixed lines per 100 people.