About 60 percent of the world's population now use mobile phones, with approximately 4.1 billion mobile-phone subscriptions annually. But U.N. says mobile phone growth helps poorer states. While just 1 in 50 Africans had a mobile in the year 2000, now 28 percent have a cellular subscription, according to the International Telecommunications Union (ITU). In its Measuring the Information Society report, the ITU said the Internet is far less accessible in poorer parts of the world, for instance in Africa where just 5 percent of the population now uses the Internet.
Dramatic mobile cellular growth in developing countries, including Pakistan (ranked 127th), Saudi Arabia (55th), China (73rd), and Vietnam (92nd), helped bolster emerging economies since the last index was compiled, in 2002, the ITU said.
Sweden topped the index, which measured countries' relative access to telephones, computers and communications networks and literacy rates, and South Korea placed second. Nordic states and high-income European, Asian, and North America also scored high.
The case of South Korea is particularly interesting, the ITU said, because it ranked high in ICT sophistication and usage, yet the income level of its citizens is relatively low. The report states, "This illustrates how a strong and targeted ICT policy can drive the development of the information society in countries with relatively lower income levels."
Myanmar, controlled by a military dictatorship, ranks last. The United States ranks 17th in the way the world's citizens use information and communications technology.
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