According to GSMA Intelligence, the number of mobile internet users in the developing world will double from 1.5 billion in 2013 to three billion by 2020, rising from 25% of the developing world population to 45% over the period.
"It is calculated that there were 2.2 billion mobile internet subscribers in 2013, representing approximately 30% of the global population,” GSMA said in its new data released by GSMA Intelligence at the GSMA Mobile 360-Africa event.
GSMA Intelligence forecasts that an additional 1.6 billion citizens worldwide will become mobile internet users over the next six years, bringing the total number to 3.8 billion, or around half of the world’s expected population in 2020.
“Here in Sub-Saharan Africa, just 17% of the populations were mobile internet subscribers in 2013, but penetration is forecast to increase to 37% by 2020,” GSMA mentioned in its report.
As per the report, almost all of the additional mobile internet users expected over the next six years will come from the developing world.
“Many users in the developing world still access the mobile internet via 2G connections – over 60% do so in Sub-Saharan Africa,” according to GSMA.
