Odds are that you’ve been looking at the internet in one way or another basically since you woke up this morning. And you probably did it all without giving it much thought. But you should probably consider yourself lucky – more than half the world doesn’t have the luxury of internet access. Efforts to increase internet access worldwide are falling short of targeted goals. More than half the world’s population is still offline and growth in the number of people with access to the internet is slowing.

2. Odds are that you’ve been looking at the internet in one way or
another basically since you woke up this morning. And you
probably did it all without giving it much thought. But you
should probably consider yourself lucky – more than half the
world doesn’t have the luxury of internet access.
Efforts to increase internet access worldwide are falling short
of targeted goals. More than half the world’s population is still
offline and growth in the number of people with access to the
internet is slowing.
What’s this all about?

3. Restricted access
This isn’t because they aren’t interested in getting online but rather
that it isn’t available to them.
Only 5% of the world’s 7,100 languages are represented on the
internet. In the developing world, 25% fewer women have internet
access than men. In parts of sub-Saharan Africa, that figure jumps to
50%. In the world’s poorest 48 countries, 90% of the population is
offline.
Meanwhile, in the United States, only 15% of Americans do not use
the internet (compared to 48% in 2000).
“The internet in many countries is still seen as a privilege and not a
basic human right,” says Clair Jones, technology and broadband
expert at LocalInternetService.com.

4. Restricted access
“Infrastructure is limited and needs to be expanded, but the real barrier
to entry is cost. For the internet to truly be available across the globe
we, as a planet, would have to decide that digital equality is important
enough to make the internet a public utility. We would need to
significantly lower costs or make the internet free for undeveloped
countries.”

5. Global slow-down
The United Nations will likely fail to meet its goal of having 60% of the
world plugging in by 2020. Among the reasons given for the remaining
dearth of access is a lack of infrastructure outside of urban areas. In
other words, ever since the internet reached a saturation point in 2012,
the rate of growth has been slowing down.
According to reports, the same is also true of mobile cellular
subscriptions, which are bringing new people to the internet at a
slower rate than before.

6. So what now?
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below!
The rich get the internet while the poor get
none