Offline: Why does only half the world’s population use the Internet?

It’s not Internet access. According to Measuring Information Society Report in 2016, many areas have been penetrated by mobile-broadband networks covering 84% of the world’s population but 3.9 billion people globally remain offline. Here are reasons why:   •       High prices prevent from access to many developing areas around the world from benefitting from the Internet. The UN has called policy-makers to address socioeconomic inequalities and help people gain skills to take full advantage of the Internet. •       Poor quality of service is a major barrier to get more people to enter the digital world •       Internet users with low levels of education and income mainly use the Internet for communication and entertainment rather than use it for advanced opportunities such as e-commerce, government and financial services, etc. •       Data on Internet use in many developing countries are not available, causing a serious challenge for ICT policy-makers, investors and content producers. ----- Facts about Internet usage in Saudi Arabia (Population: 29,897,741):   Fixed-telephone subscriptions per 100 inhabitants: 12.53 Mobile-cellular telephone subscriptions per 100 inhabitants 176.59 International internet bandwidth per Internet user (Bit/s): 88,669.13 Percentage of households with computer: 67% Percentage of households with Internet access: 94% Percentage of individuals using the Internet: 69.6%