Data Monday: Global Network Penetration

by August 10, 2009

Recent numbers on network penetration:

  • Japan lays claim to the largest 3G subscriber base in the world. With almost 92 million UMTS users at the end of March 2009, Japan has 50% more 3G subscribers than the United States, and three times as many as South Korea. (source)
  • The US will overtake Japan for 3G subscribers in 2011 (source)
  • In three years, China will overtake the US as the largest 3G user base (source)
  • China now the world’s largest internet market as measured by users (source)
  • The Chinese market is still in its early growth stages, with Internet usage at 22% of the population, versus 75% for the US (source)
  • Europe's digital sector has made strong progress since 2005: 56% of Europeans now regularly use the internet, 80% of them via a high-speed connection (compared to only one third in 2004) (source)
  • In Europe, people aged 16 to 24 are the most active internet users: 73% of them regularly use advanced services to create and share online content, twice the EU population average (35%) (see annex). 66% of all Europeans under 24 use the internet every day, compared to the EU average of 43%. (source)