The World in 2011: ICT Facts and Figures

1. The World in
2011 ICT FaCTs and FIgures
One third of the world’s population is online
45% of Internet users below the age of 25
Users, developed
Share of Internet users in the total population
2006 Using Internet:
18% 2011* Users
Using Internet:
35%
China:28% Developed
China: 37%
Developed India: 6%
Not using Developing India: 10%
Internet: 82% Developing
Other
Not using Other
developing
countries: 66% Internet: 65% developing
countries: 53%
Total population: 6.5 billion Total population: 7 billion
Note: * Estimate
Source: ITU World Telecommunication/ICT Indicators database
• The world is home to 7 billion people, one third of which are using the Internet. 45% of the world’s
Internet users are below the age of 25.
• Over the last five years, developing countries have increased their share of the world’s total number of
Internet users from 44% in 2006, to 62% in 2011. Today, Internet users in China represent almost 25% of
the world’s total Internet users and 37% of the developing countries’ Internet users.
4.5
Internet users by age and by development level, 2011*
4.0
3.5 • Younger people tend to be more online than
older people, in both developed and developing
3.0 Not using Internet countries.
Using Internet 66 %
2.5 • In developing countries, 30% of those under
Billions of people
the age of 25 use the Internet, compared to
64%
2.0
77%
23% of those 25 years and older.
70%
1.5 • At the same time, 70% of the under 25-year-
olds — a total of 1.9 billion — are not online
1.0
yet: a huge potential if developing countries
29%
36%
34% can connect schools and increase school
0.5
23%
71%
30% 23% enrolment rates.
77%
0.0
Under 25 Over 25 Under 25 Over 25 Under 25 Over 25
Developed Developing World
Note: * Estimate
Source: ITU World Telecommunication/ICT Indicators database

2. The World in 2011 — ICT Facts and Figures
Almost
6 billion mobile-cellular subscriptions
Active mobile -broadband subscriptions
7
Fixed(wired) - broadband subscriptions • With 5.9 billion mobile-cellular
6 Fixed -telephone lines subscriptions, global penetration
Internet users reaches 87%, and 79% in the devel-
5 Mobile-cellular telephone subscriptions
oping world.
4
• Mobile-broadband subscriptions have
Billions
grown 45% annually over the last
3 four years and today there are twice
as many mobile-broadband as fixed-
2 broadband subscriptions.
1
0
2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011*
Note: * Estimate
Source: ITU World Telecommunication/ICT Indicators database
Home ICT access, 2011*
Penetration developed countries
Penetration developing countries
74 74
71
25 20
1.8 billion households 0.7 billion households with a PC 0.6 billion households with Internet
Note: * Estimate
Source: ITU World Telecommunication/ICT Indicators database
• Of 1.8 billion households worldwide, one third have Internet access, compared to only one fifth
five years ago.
• In developing countries, 25% of homes have a computer and 20% have Internet access, compared
to 20% and 13%, respectively, 3 years ago.

3. The World in 2011 — ICT Facts and Figures
Growth in bandwidth
facilitates broadband uptake
90’000
International Internet bandwidth, GBit/s
International Internet bandwidth, GBit/s
80’000
World
70’000 World
Developed
Developed
60’000
Developing
Developing
50’000
40’000
30’000
20’000
10’000
0
2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011*
Note: * Estimate
Source: ITU World Telecommunication/ICT Indicators database
• International Internet bandwidth, a key factor for providing high-speed Internet access to a growing number
of Internet users has grown exponentially over the last five years, from 11’000 Gbit/s in 2006, to close to
80’000 Gbit/s in 2011.
• Disparities between regions in terms of available Internet bandwidth per Internet user remain, with on
average almost 90’000 bit/s of bandwidth per user in Europe, compared with 2’000 bit/s per user in
Africa.
87’395
40’000
International Internet bandwidth (bit/s) per Internet user, 2011*
35’000
International Internet bandwidth (bit/s)
30’000
per Internet user, 2011*
25’000
20’000
15’000
10’000
5’000
0
Africa Arab States Asia & Paci c CIS Americas World Europe
Note: * Estimate
Source: ITU World Telecommunication/ICT Indicators database

4. The World in 2011 — ICT Facts and Figures
Active mobile-broadband
subscriptions reach almost 1.2 billion
Availability of 3G Networks
Countries that offer 2G/3G services commercially, mid-2011*
2G only
2G
3G
2G and 3G
90% 45%
2G population coverage 3G population coverage
Note: * Estimate
Source: ITU World Telecommunication/ICT Indicators database
• A total of 159 economies worldwide have launched 3G services commercially and the number of active
mobile-broadband subscriptions has increased to almost 1.2 billion.
• While people in developed countries usually use mobile-broadband networks in addition to a fixed-
broadband connection, mobile-broadband is often the only access method available to people in
developing countries.
• The percentage of the population covered by a 2G mobile-cellular network is twice as high as the
population covered by a 3G network. 3G population coverage reached 45% in 2011.

5. The World in 2011 — ICT Facts and Figures
Europe leads the broadband race
60
Fixed (wired)-broadband subscriptions, 2011*
Fixed (wired)-broadband
50
subscriptions, 2011*
Active mobile-broadband subscriptions, 2011*
Per 100 inhabitants
40 Active mobile-broadband
subscriptions, 2011*
30
20
10
0
Africa Asia & Paci c Arab States CIS World Americas Europe
Note: * Estimate
Source: ITU World Telecommunication/ICT Indicators database Top broadband economies, early 2011
Active mobile-
Fixed-broadband
broadband
Economy subscriptions per Economy
subscriptions per
100 inhabitants
100 inhabitants*
• Europe leads in broadband connectivity, with
Netherlands 38.1 Korea (Rep.) 91.0
fixed- and mobile-broadband penetration
Switzerland 37.9 Japan 87.8
reaching 26% and 54%, respectively.
Denmark 37.7 Sweden 84.0
• A number of developing countries have Korea (Rep.) 35.7 Australia 82.7
been able to leverage mobile-broadband Norway 35.3 Finland 78.1
technologies to overcome infrastructure Iceland 34.1 Hong Kong, China 74.5
barriers and provide high-speed Internet France 33.9 Portugal 72.5
services to previously unconnected areas. In Luxembourg 33.2 Luxembourg 72.1
Africa, mobile-broadband penetration has
Sweden 31.8 Singapore 69.7
reached 4%, compared with less than 1% for
Germany 31.7 Austria 67.4
fixed-broadband penetration.
United Kingdom 31.6 New Zealand 66.2
• The world’s top broadband economies are Belgium 31.5 Kuwait 63.5
from Europe and Asia and the Pacific. In Hong Kong, China 29.9 Israel 62.2
the Republic of Korea mobile-broadband Canada 29.8 Brunei Darussalam 61.4
penetration exceeds 90%. Finland 28.6 Cyprus 61.3
United States 27.6 Italy 59.4
Malta 27.5 United Arab Emirates 58.4
Japan 26.9 Greece 58.3
Estonia 25.1 Saudi Arabia 57.8
Singapore 24.9 Macao, China 56.1
New Zealand 24.9 United Kingdom 56.0
Slovenia 24.2 Spain 55.7
Australia 24.2 Denmark 54.7
Macao, China 24.2 United States 54.0
Austria 23.9 Ireland 47.3
Note: Excludes economies with populations below 100’000
Source: ITU World Telecommunication/ICT Indicators databasee
* Data provided by Wireless Intelligence

6. The World in 2011 — ICT Facts and Figures
Broadband – speed matters
Fixed-broadband subscriptions, by speed, early 2011
• While almost all fixed-broadband connections in the Republic of Korea provide speeds equal to, or
above 10 Mbit/s, broadband users in Ghana, Mongolia, Oman and Venezuela are limited to broadband
speeds below 2 Mbit/s.
• An Internet connection with a speed of 256 kbit/s limits the types of applications and services that
Internet users can enjoy. Service providers for data-intensive services, such as Video-on-Demand,
recommend a minimum speed of 2 Mbit/s.
• Advertised and real speeds can differ substantially. In some countries, regulatory authorities monitor
the speed and quality of broadband services and oblige operators to provide accurate quality-of-service
information to end users.
Korea (Rep.)
Bulgaria
Portugal
United Kingdom
France
Sweden
Denmark
Singapore
United States*††
Czech Republic
Spain
Finland
Georgia
Switzerland
Germany
Slovak Republic
Hungary
Slovenia
Ireland
Estonia
Chile
United Arab Emirates
Turkey
Azerbaijan
Morocco
Serbia†
Oman
Colombia* ≥ 10 Mbit/s
≥10 Mbit/s
Tunisia ≥ 2 to < 10 Mbits/s
≥2 to <10 Mbit/s
Qatar
≥256 kbit/s to <2 Mbit/s
≥ 256 kbit/s to < 2 Mbit/s
Jordan
Mongolia
Venezuela
Ghana
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
Note: Refers to advertised speeds. * Data correspond to slightly different speed intervals.
† Breakdown by speed available only for part of the total fixed (wired)-broadband subscriptions.
†† June 2010 data.
Source: ITU World Telecommunication/ICT Indicators database

7. The World in 2011 — ICT Facts and Figures
Fixed broadband prices in developing countries
drop by over 50% in just two years
• The ITU ICT Price Basket 1 shows that
Fixed-broadband sub-basket 234.9 between 2008 and 2010 ICT services
150 Fixed- telephone sub-basket
2008 52.2% have become more affordable and
130 2008
2010 112.2 relative prices came down by an
2010
110 - average of 18%, globally.
90 Percentage
change (drop)
• The steepest price drop occurred in
70 between 2008 developing countries, where fixed-
and 2010
50 broadband prices dropped by 52.2%.
35.4%
30
• In developing countries, mobile-
10 2.4 1.5 cellular prices, which have
0
Developed countries Developing countries
substantially dropped over the last
decade, fell by a further 22%. The
2010 mobile-cellular sub-basket
Mobile-cellular sub-basket
16 Mobile-cellular sub-basket
14.7 22.0% represented on average 11.4% of
2008
14 2008 monthly GNI per capita, compared
2010
12
2010 11.4 to 2% in developed countries.
10 Percentage
change (drop)
• ICT services continue to be
8
between 2008 more affordable in high-income
and 2010
economies and less affordable in
6
19.1% low-income economies. By 2010,
4 the cost of ICT services averaged
2.4
2.0
2 1.5% of GNI per capita in developed
0 countries, compared with 17% of GNI
Developed countries Developing countries per capita in developing countries.
• In 31 countries — all of them highly
industrialized economies — an
6.7%
9
Fixed-telephone sub-basket
8.4
entry-level broadband connection
Fixed-telephone sub-basket
8 2008
2008
7.8 costs on average the equivalent of
Fixed-telephone sub-basket 1% or less of average monthly GNI
7 2010
2010
per capita, while in 19 countries
6
Percentage — most of them least developed
5 change (drop)
between 2008 countries — a broadband connection
4 and 2010 costs on average more than 100% of
3 9.8% monthly GNI per capita.
2 1.3 1.1
1 1. The ITU ICT Price Basket is a composite measure based
on three tariff sets — fixed-telephone, mobile-cellular and
0 fixed-broadband Internet services — and computed as a
Developed countries Developing countries percentage of average GNI per capita.
Source: ITU Measuring the Information Society (2011)

8. The World in 2011 — ICT Facts and Figures
For more information:
ICT Data and Statistics Division
Telecommunication Development Bureau
International Telecommunication Union
Place des Nations
1211 Geneva 20 - Switzerland
indicators@itu.int
www.itu.int/ict
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ICT
9th World Tele
communicatio
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In di ca to rs M ee
ti ng
Mauritius, 7-9
December 2011
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© 2011, International Telecommunication Union