International Telecommunication Union calls for broadband Internet access for half the world’s population by 2015

“The number of Internet users has more than doubled since 2003, when the World Summit on the Information Society first met, and today more than 25 per cent of the world’s population is using the Internet,” says Sami Al Basheer Al Morshid, Director of ITU’s Telecommunication Development Bureau. “The importance of bringing people online is widely recognized, but more efforts are needed to increase the number of Internet users. While today 75 per cent of all households have a TV, only 25 per cent have Internet access. In the developing countries, home Internet penetration is as low as 12 per cent.”

Where home access to the Internet is low, it is particularly important for countries to invest in public Internet access. Many governments across the world are actively promoting public access and some are turning libraries, museums and post offices into Internet cafés. In Bhutan, for example, 40 per cent of all localities have a Public Internet Access Centre. Since 2003, the Royal Government of Bhutan, in cooperation with ITU, has been revamping post offices in remote and rural locations into ICT centres, allowing rural inhabitants to join the information society. In Mexico, almost 40 per cent of the 7000 public libraries offer visitors Internet access. All archives have a broadband Internet connection and efforts are being made to digitize all the information.

Read the full story at the ITU website.