A third of the world’s population deprived of Internet, UN says

Geneva, SANA- The International Telecommunication Union said that a third of the world’s population is still without an Internet connection, amid a slowdown in the pace of new connections. AFP quoted the Union as saying in a report that “Around 5.3 billion people around the world now use the Internet, and while growth remains encouraging, the trend is that in the absence of new investments in infrastructure and new momentum to attract new digital skills, opportunities to connect all the world’s population by 2030 is increasingly declining.” While 2.7 billion people are still unable to access the Internet this year, it was 3 billion in 2021 and 3.6 billion in 2019, before the “Covid-19” pandemic, the report pointed out. There are strong differences between regions. Africa is still the least connected among the six regions of the Union, with 40% of the population enjoying an Internet connection, while this rate in Arab countries is 70%. In the Asia Pacific region, internet penetration increased from 61% in 2021 to 64% this year. Hala Zain