2017 will have 50% using the Internet once per month and 85% with 3G or 4G mobile

Tweet In a recently published Forrester ForecastView report titled “Forrester Research World Online Population Forecast, 2012 To 2017 (Global),” Forrester found that 2.4 billion people across the world use the Internet on a regular basis — i.e., at least once a month — from home, school, work, or any other location via a PC or a non-PC (mobile) Internet access device. This is expected to grow to 3.5 billion by 2017, representing nearly half of the 2017 overall world population of 7.4 billion.

As we move toward 2017, most of the laggard countries will move up the curve as Net access becomes more pervasive. The speed at which a particular country moves up the curve will depend on a number of factors, such as:

* The affordability of Internet services or Internet access devices.
* The education/skills of the users.
* The interest/motivation of the users.
* Internet connectivity (i.e., fixed broadband and mobile).
* The country’s infrastructure (i.e., telephone lines and international bandwidth).
* The government’s vision of the country’s digital future and related policies.

Ericsson released its second Traffic and Market Report - On the Pulse of the Networked Society
Ericsson predicts - by 2017, 85 percent of the world's population will have 3G coverage and 50 percent of the world's population will be covered by 4G in 2017.

* Smartphone subscriptions are expected to reach 3 billion in 2017
* Mobile subscriptions reached 6.2 billion in Q1 2012 and 170 million new mobile subscriptions were added during the quarter
* Global data traffic to grow 15 times by the end of 2017






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