An ITU research report Connecting the Unconnected released at the World Economic Forum in Davos (Switzerland) says that 3.9 billion people, more than half the World’s population have still never been online. This despite the vast increases in relatively cheap particularly wireless based connectivity and devices.
The ITU predicts that one billion of the currently unconnected will come online by 2020 but that they will be dominantly urban based and already within reach of existing wireless and wireline infrastructure.
58% of the unconnected are women and 60% live in rural areas. The ITU is calling for concerted action to address the shortfall and to lift access to the online world and the skills and opportunities it would bring to the rural poor of the World.