Socio-Economic Trend
Telecommunications
UNIT: Billion telephone subscriptions
The world has experienced astonishing telecommunications growth in recent decades. There are now 7 billion mobile phone subscriptions and 3 billion people – 40% of the world population – are using the internet. In the next decade this remarkable growth is set to continue as Africa and Asia leapfrog over obsolete technologies like land lines.
Graph Caption: Global sum of fixed landlines (1950-2010) and mobile phone subscriptions (1980-2010). Landline data are based on Canning for 1950-1989 and UN data from 1990-2010 while mobile phone subscription data are based solely on UN data.
Sources: Canning 1998; United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD) 2014.
Caption: European Data Relay System
Credit: European Space Agency
Map Caption: Global Scientific Collaboration as a proxy of communications interconnectedness
Map Credit: Based on Olivier Beauchesne's Map of Scientific Collaboration, olihb.com
Credit: European Space Agency
Map Caption: Global Scientific Collaboration as a proxy of communications interconnectedness
Map Credit: Based on Olivier Beauchesne's Map of Scientific Collaboration, olihb.com