Internet users to exceed 2bn this year - UN agency

Users have doubled in the past five years, and compare with an estimated global population of 6.9 billion, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) said. Of 226-million new Internet users this year, 162-million will be from developing countries where growth rates are now higher, the ITU said in a report.

However, by the end of 2010, 71 percent of the population in developed countries will be online compared with 21 percent of people in developing countries. The ITU said it was particularly important for developing countries to build up high-speed connections. "Broadband is the next tipping point, the next truly transformational technology," said ITU secretary-general Hamadoun Toure, of Mali. "It can generate jobs, drive growth and productivity and underpin long-term economic competitiveness."