UN: worldwide internet users hit two billion, cellphone subscriptions top five billion

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The UN's International Telecommunication Union predicted last fall
that the number of internet users worldwide would hit two billion by
the end of 2010, and it's now issued its full report that confirms
just that -- 2.08 billion, to be specific. As the ITU's Hamadoun Toure
notes, that number represents a huge leap from the mere 250 million
internet users that existed a decade ago, and it means that roughly
one third of the world's population now has internet access of some
sort -- of those, 555 million have a fixed broadband subscription, and
950 million have mobile broadband. Just as impressive as that (if not
moreso), are the number of cellphone subscriptions worldwide, which
has now crossed the five billion mark. That's up from 500 million at
the beginning of the year 2000, although the agency notes that it's
only accounted for "subscriptions," and not individual users. Any way
you slice it, however, that's quite a record of growth for the first
decade of the 21st century.