One Billion People Online
ONE BILLION PEOPLE ONLINE
[SOURCE: eMarketer press release]
According to Worldwide Online Access: 2004-2010, the world reached a milestone late in 2005 as Internet access became available to one billion people worldwide, with approximately 845 million using it regularly. "The US is the single country with the largest Internet population with 175.4 million Internet users at the end of 2005, followed by China at 111 million," says Ben Macklin, eMarketer Senior Analyst and author of the report. "Despite China's continuing strong Internet growth, eMarketer expects the US to maintain its lead over China, at least until the end of the decade." Broadband access also continues to grow and to account for an everÂlarger percentage of total Internet access "At the end of 2005 there were 195 million broadband households worldwide, up from 142 million in 2004, an increase of 37%," says Mr. Macklin. "Despite a maturing broadband sector in Western Europe, North America and some parts of Asia, the large populations of China, India, Russia, Turkey, Brazil, and Mexico, all of which saw strong broadband growth in 2005, will ensure that global broadband subscriber growth remains in double digits for many years to come." eMarketer estimates that there were 108.1 million broadband users in the US at the end of 2005. There were 48 million broadband subscriber lines and 43.7 million households with broadband access.
http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6335924.html?display=Breaking+News