Increasing Broadband Internet Penetration
In the OIC Member Countries
43
Despite the growth in fixed broadband adoption on a worldwide scale, the gap highlighted
above between the developed and the emerging world remains pervasive. However, when
comparing the gap between developed and emerging regions in terms of Internet usage and
fixed broadband penetration, the gap is much larger in the latter. Fixed broadband adoption in
the developing world lags the developed world average (OECD) between 35 (Central America)
and 78 percentage points (Middle Africa) (see table 9).
Table 9: Worldwide fixed broadband adoption (as percent of population) (2015)
Region Internet Adoption (%) Western Europe 89.1
Northern Europe 86.2
Northern America 84.4
OECD Countries 78.1
Australasia 75.2
Southern Europe 69.5
Eastern Asia 67.8
Eastern Europe 51.8
Western Asia 48.2
Central America 43.1
Southern America 41.8
Polynesia 41.2
World 36.5%
Central Asia 22.9
Southern Africa 19.6
South-Eastern Asia 17.3
Northern Africa 17.2
Caribbean 15.9
Micronesia 9.7
Southern Asia 8.4
Melanesia 4.2
Eastern Africa 2.2
Western Africa 0.9
Middle Africa 0.7
Sources: International Telecommunications Union; Telecom Advisory Services analysisFurthermore, an analysis of fixed broadband penetration growth trend clearly indicates that,
with the exception of South America, the gap between OECD countries and the emerging world
continues to grow (see figure 15).