UN Report: More Than Third of World's Population Now Online

A UN report has claimed that over a third of the world's population has access to the Internet, and mobile phone uptake has increased by more than 600 million in 2011 to around six billion.

"On the back of the increase in broadband services worldwide, the number of people using the internet grew by 11 per cent over the past year ... i.e., 2.3 billion people," the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), said.

According to the Sydney Morning Herald, the ITU, however, highlighted huge disparities in the cost of services, with the poorer parts of the world tending to pay the most.

In terms of affordability, Macau, Norway and Singapore topped the list of 161 countries the report said.

According to the report, Madagascar came bottom, just behind Togo and Niger.

In Africa, Internet connectivity prices were almost seven times higher than in the Americas, and 20 times higher than Europe in 2011, the report added.

Source: ANI