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Last week, broadband made headlines with Ericsson’s projections for a “mobile broadband boom” over the next 5 years, with a potential 50 billion connections by 2020.
But when you examine which countries are currently hogging the most broadband, it’s easy to see that use is not proportionate to population — though it is somewhat proportionate to wealth. This graph, courtesy of Peer Software, compares the Internet usage and GDP per capita of the G-20 nations. No surprise, there’s still a massive gap between developing and the developed nations. But somewhat surprising is the lagging of massive and rapidly-industrializing nations like China and India. These nations have enormous potential for growth, with their expanding economies that correspond to a fast-growing middle class that will be eager to use mobile phones, laptops, e-readers, and more.
Still, looking at the data raises an important question: What do countries in the lower left of the graph, and their non-G-20 counterparts, need to do to fully bridge that persistent technology gap?
