Their estimations revealed that in 2008, there were an estimated 4.1 billion mobile subscriptions, almost four times the number of subscriptions in 2002. In addition to that, there were over three times more mobile cellular subscriptions than fixed telephone lines globally. Furthermore, poor countries were among the greatest contributors to the global ICT index over the past five years, partly due to high mobile cellular growth, coupled with an increase in Internet uses.

 

Countries such as Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, China and Vietnam have moved up the hierarchy, but both developed and developing countries have shown more than 30 percent increase in ICT levels. But, the report also shows, developing countries are still lagging behind on ICT access and usage.

 

At the end of last year, 23 percent of people globally used the Internet, however, this is where developing countries are still suffering from low penetrating levels (in Africa, this rate is as low as 5  percent).

 

On a global level, the most remarkable progress was on ICT access, namely on fixed and mobile telephony, Internet bandwidth, and households with computers and Internet. However, ICT use progress was much slower, the report also shows. Easter Europe showed the most dynamic growth in terms of ICT levels.