Title:
2 Billion People Expected Online by End of 2010
Description: This is
a VOA Special English Technology Report.
See text below
Text:
Before we changed the name, we went on our Facebook
page and asked for story ideas. Some of you
suggested that we talk about ICT, information and
communication technology.Well, the International
Telecommunication Union, a United Nations agency,
released its latest ICT Facts and Figures report in
October. Since two thousand five, the number of
Internet users worldwide has doubled to more than
one and a half billion people. At least two billion
are expected to be online by the end of this year.
The ITU says more than seventy percent of new
Internet users this year will be in developing
countries. Still, only twenty-one percent of the
population of the developing world is online --
compared to seventy-one percent in developed
countries. Susan Teltscher is head of the agency's
Market Information and Statistics Division in
Switzerland. She says there are still very huge
divides when it comes to accessing the Internet,
especially high-speed Internet. In Africa not even
ten percent of the population is using the
Internet.Fewer than sixteen percent of homes in
developing countries are wired for the Internet.
But, on the other hand, Ms. Teltscher says mobile
phone usage has reached sixty-eight percent in
developing countries.The world has almost seven
billion people. Nine out of ten now have access to
mobile networks. The ITU estimates that mobile
subscriptions will reach five billion three hundred
million this year. The majority are in the
developing world. And Susan Teltscher says more and
more people in developing countries are using their
mobile phones to connect to the Internet.Ms.
Teltscher says mobile technology is already
improving lives in developing countries. She points
to examples like banking by phone, e-health services
and farm reports by text messaging. And the
possibilities will only grow as broadband, or
high-speed, connections become more widely
available. ITU Secretary General Hamadoun Toure
calls broadband "the next truly transformational
technology." He also calls it the most powerful tool
available in the race to meet the Millennium
Development Goals by twenty fifteen. For VOA Special
English, I'm Alex Villarreal. Join us online at
voaspecialenglish.com or on Facebook or Twitter at
VOA Learning English.
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Hi. I
personally reviewed this video and found it appropriate for
the news section of English Global Group. This
is a Voice of America video which covers an interesting
topic in Special English. I would appreciate some feedback from both
students and teachers about this video. You can comment in
the window below using any of a number of different services
including Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, and Hotmail.
