The GovLab Index on Internet Governance — Access (Infrastructure)
14 January 2015
Please find below the latest installment of the GovLab Index on Internet Governance, inspired by the Harper’s Index. “Internet Governance — Access (Infrastructure)” is part of a series of Indexes that focus on the five main areas within Internet Governance: access, content, code, trust, and trade. This edition focuses on infrastructural aspects of Internet access and connectivity. Previous installments in the series include Access (Net Neutrality), Code, Content, Trade, and Trust. Please share any additional statistics and research findings with us by emailing shruti at thegovlab.org.
Internet Access
- Percentage of the world’s population that is using the Internet: 40% (2.7 billion)
- How many people globally can access the Internet: 1 in 3
- How much of the global population remains unconnected: 4.3 billion
- Global average connection speed: 4.5 Mbps
- Global average peak connection speed: 24.8 Mbps
- How many of the world’s households have Internet at home: 44%
- Households in Africa that are connected: 1 in 10
- Households in developed countries that will be connected by end 2014: 78%
- In developing countries: 31%
- Percentage of Americans who use the Internet in 2014: 87%
- Number of fixed broadband subscriptions per 100 inhabitants in the United States in 2000: 2.48
- In 2013: 28.58
- Amount spent annually in the United States in terms of private sector broadband investment: $73 billion
- Country with the highest average Internet connection speed: South Korea, at 25.3 Mbps
- Growth of Internet speed in South Korea: year on year increase of 145%
- Country with the highest average peak connection speed at 84.6 Mbps: Hong Kong
- Average connection speed globally in 2014: 3.9 Mbps (1.8% increase from last year)
- Most common type of broadband connection across the OECD: DSL, 52.7%
- Value generated by expanding wired broadband networks to reach 30% of the world’s people by 2030, up from 10% now, as found by the Copenhagen Consensus Center: $21 of economic benefit for every $1 spent
- Potential increase in long run productivity in developing countries if their internet access is extended to levels seen in developed countries: up to 25%
- Value of the resulting economic activity as estimated by Deloitte: $2.2 trillion in additional GDP, a 72% growth in GDP rate, and more than 140 million jobs
Broadband in the United States
- National average speed for Internet connections in the US: 31.85 Mbps
- Most common household connection type in the United States in 2013: cable modem (42.8%)
- Percentage of Americans who lack access to 25Mbps/3Mbps: 17% or 55 million
- How many rural Americans lack access to 25Mbps/3Mbps: 53% or 22 million
- How many urban Americans lack access to 25Mbps/3Mbps: 8%
- Amount the broadband gap closed in 2014: 3%
- Broadband as currently defined by the US Federal Communication Commission (FCC): 4 Mbps down, 1 Mbps up
- Definition of broadband being proposed by Tom Wheeler, Chairman of the FCC, in January 2015: 25 Mbps down, 3 Mbps up
Fiber Optics
- Average speed of Google fiber in the United States: 218 Mbps
- Growth in subscriptions to fiber optics services globally from June 2012 to June 2013: 13.9%
- Country with the highest penetration of fiber-optic links: Japan, 68.5% penetration
- Penetration of fiber-optic links in the United States: 7.7%, ranked 14th worldwide
- Percentage of schools that lack access to fiber in the US: 35%
- Country with the fastest growth in new fiber connections: Mexico, 290% increase from 2012 to 2013
- Fiber-optic growth in the United States: 12%
- U.S. cities in which Google is rolling out 1Gbps Google Fiber service: Kansas City, Austin, and Provo
- Top three barriers to fiber broadband deployment in rural areas of the United States in 2012 according to a survey by the NTCA among their member companies: deployment cost, regulatory uncertainty, long loops
Sources
- Broadband Industry Stats. US Telecom. Last accessed December 05, 2014.
- Brodkin, Jon. Only 25Mbps and up will qualify as broadband under new FCC definition. Arstechnica. January 07, 2015.
- Computer and Internet Use in the United States: 2013. United States Census Bureau. November 2014.
- Discover Fiber. Google Fiber. Last accessed December 05, 2014.
- Fixed broadband Internet subscribers (per 100 people). The World Bank. Last accessed December 05, 2014.
- Google Fiber. Ookla Speedtest. Last accessed December 16, 2014.
- NTCA 2012 Broadband/Internet Availability Survey Report. Rural Broadband Association March 2013.
- OECD Broadband Portal. OECD. Last updated July 22, 2014.
- State of the Internet Report. Akamai. Q3 2014.
- The Web at 25 in the U.S. PewResearch Internet Project. February 27, 2014.
- The World in 2014: ICT Facts and Figures. International Telecommunications Union. 2014.
- Value of Connectivity. Economic and Social Benefits of Expanding Internet Access. Deloitte. February, 2014.
