COMCEC Transport and Communications
Outlook 2018
52
Figure 28: Mobile cellular subscriptions (per 100 people) (1990-2016)
Source: World Bank
In addition to increase in the number of internet users, types and nature of online activities are
also continuously changing. New technology and applications such as online video streaming,
voice over IP, machine to machine communication and telecommunication trends like
convergence result in increased data usage and higher speed requirements. These
developments eventually increase the demand for bandwidth, which represents the
transmission capacity of a telecommunication device or system, i.e. the amount of data that can
be transformed in a given time period. This increasing bandwidth demand creates the need for
“broadband” internet.
As Figure 29 illustrates, fixed broadband subscriptions have been rapidly increasing, especially
in high income countries. Global average of fixed broadband subscriptions per 100 people was
about 12 in 2016 while the same figure was only 4.7 ten years ago. On the other hand, while
average broadband subscriptions per 100 people exceeded 31 percent in high income countries,
it is just 0.7 percent in low income countries.
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