Nearly two - thirds of the mankind ’s population now have the opportunity to waste aside their life online just like you . Specifically , around 2.9 billion ( or 37 % ) of the world ’s population have still never used the internet , with the vast majority of those people residing in grow nation . Those figures are part of a newreportconducted by the UN ’s International Telecommunication Union which simultaneously found a speedy increment in new ball-shaped net connection , seemingly fast - chase by the pandemic .
According to the report , the routine of people using the internet worldwide surged from 4.1 billion in 2019 to 4.9 billion in 2021 . This “ Covid Connectivity boost ” was likely the outcome of lockdown , pivot man towards distant work and schoolhouse , and huge increases in Es - commerce and online banking . Overall , worldwide internet drug user grow by more than 10 % in 2020 , the turgid annual increment in a tenner , the report mention .
But these massive increase only say part of the tale . For fledgeling , a significant portion of novel internet user during the pandemic ( and global net user in the main ) plug in infrequently and often only through share gadget or via limited , low connectivity speed . Secondly , there ’s clearly a monumental digital divide separating copious nations and poorer developing countries . 96 % of those still ineffective to connect to the internet fall in the latter category . There are also huge gap between urban and rural access code . While 76 percent of individuals in urban areas worldwide used the net , that figure dunk down to 39 % for those in rural domain .
Image: Dean Mouhtaropoulos (Getty Images)
“ These statistics show great advance towards ITU ’s mission to link up the world , ” ITU Director of Telecommunication Development Bureau Doreen Bogdan - Martin aver in a statement . “ But a huge ‘ connectivity chasm ’ continue in the LDCs , where almost three - quarter of people have never connected to the net . ”
cyberspace access stay skew towards military man as well , peculiarly in poorer develop commonwealth . While globally 62 % of military man use the net compared to women , that disparity increased significantly in the least develop country where 31 % of valet de chambre link to the internet compare to 57 % of women .
Though the number of wholly unconnected users is recoil , they still collectively constitute a massive ontogenesis opportunity for international tech company … and there ’s no deficit of tech giants already vying to be the ones to bring those last 3 billion online . All around the world , Google , Facebook , and Amazon are spending one million million to build out subsea internet infrastructure that they bet could bolster global net speeds and access .
Last year , Google alone owned around 10,433 miles of grinder cablesaccording toVentureBeat . More lately , MetacommissionedNEC Corporation to construct the world ’s high mental ability submarine cable between North America and Europe , capable of carry 500 terabits per second . Those two tech whale also recently announced they wereteaming upto make out a monolithic new cable connecting Japan to countries in Southeast Asia .
If this sounds somewhat intimate , that ’s because it is n’t the first time US technical school companies have made significant pushes into egress food market . Back in 2016 Facebook tried to court Indian government officials by proffer a “ gratuitous ” mobile information program to the country ’s occupant call Free Basics . The catch , of course of instruction , was that Facebook would conveniently stand for the individual portal with which people could get to the web . OfficialsbannedFree Basic in India , but the program has made someinroadsacross Africa .
Meanwhile , satellite net companies are hop they will be able to ply connectivity to client in rural area badly - suit for go traditional fiber . SpaceX hold the lead here with its more than 1,800 launch Starlink satellites , but it could front competition from Amazon’sProject Kuiper , which is spend bountiful on licensees and recentlyacquiredFacebook ’s artificial satellite net squad . It ’s worth noting though that Amazon has launched a rarified total of zero satellites into distance so far . Overall , the satellite internet outer space is poised for an geological era of rapid , expensiveconsolidationin an attempt to potentially usurp traditional telecoms in remote field .
The UN report further evidence the increase in global internet access code is more of a question of when rather than if . Who provides that access and whether or not the gains of that connectivity are distribute fairly among communities though continue a giant strange .
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