The Internet Gold Rush
Notes:
The Internet Society International connectivity map is turning more and more blue month by month. Allmost all countries in the world are connected to the Internet (shown in blue). Some few third world countries have only e-mail connectivity through systems that are not constantly connected (green). Only a handful of countries (yellow) are totally outside and in these cases it is most often due to the political instability of the country. These countries include Libya, Iraq, Yemen, Burma etc.
What the map does not show is how large a proportion of the citizens have the possibility to use the net. This is measured by the figure “internet hosts per capita”. No. 1 in the world is Finland where about 20% of the population have used the net. Iceland is no 2 with Norway and USA struggling for the third price. The figure for USA is less than half that of Finland. USA used to be world leader in Internetting only some four years ago.
Generally speaking, countries with highly developed infrastructure AND free competition in the telecommunication sector that presses street prices to near production costs score highest. In southern Europe telecom monopolies charge tremendously high prices that keeps the connectivity figure low.