Title: Let them eat fibre

Author: Alan Lenton

Date: 21 June 2007 08:42:56 +01:00 or Thu, 21 June 2007 08:42:56 +01:00

Summary: [21-6-2007] Something of a world wide milestone was passed recently...

Body: The total numbers of broadband users in the world passed the 300 million mark. A report from market research group Point Topic revealed that in March there were 298 million subscribers, so it's a pretty safe bet that there are now over 300 million. That sounds pretty impressive until you look a little more closely at the figures.

According the CIA World Factbook (I decided to pass on the Wikipedia on this one!) the current world population is about 6.6 billion. For the pedants among you, the CIA think it will be 6,602,224,175 by the end of this month. When you put that number against the 300,000,000 broadband subscribers, it doesn't look quite so impressive. In fact it represents a broadband penetration of only four and a half percent! (All calculations courtesy of the solar driven, bright yellow, made in China, Microsoft Visual C++ .net, freebie pocket calculator I picked up at an ACCU Conference a few years back.)

There are a number of other things that don't come through in the survey, although to be fair they are not what the survey is about. For instance, while most of the Internet growth in the past years has been in Western and Asian Rim countries, there is a stubborn and persistent third of this population who are not connected, or who have previously been connected and dropped out. Investigation over the years indicates that, in general, it's not that these people can't afford to be on the net, it's that the net provides them with no compelling reason to partake.

Unsurprisingly, the likes of the US, China, Korea, Japan and Western Europe figure very high on the list of broadband connected countries, and most of the sub-Saharan African countries don't appear. I suspect the latter have more pressing issues to deal with than obtaining porn faster - civil war, shelter, clean water, food, minimal heath care, AIDS, and the depredations of the green mafia telling them they can't improve their economy because it will increase the 'carbon footprint', to mention but a few.

One day, the whole world will be connected. One day. In the meantime the bulk of the world's population continues with the daily grind of obtaining food and shelter for themselves and their families.

http://newsletter.eetimes.com/cgi-bin4/DM/y/e8rv0FypUC0FrX0FKEF0A5
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/print/xx.html

Notes: 

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