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294 THE ISA HANDBOOK IN CONTEMPORARY SOCIOLOGY

THE DIFFUSION OF THE At the end of 2004, more than half of the
world’s estimated Internet users were based
NEW INFORMATION AND
in North America and Europe, but only 7%
COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES
in Latin America and, even fewer, only 2%, in
IN GLOBAL AND COMPARATIVE
all of Africa (ITU, 2005). A breakdown of the
PERSPECTIVE
more reliable host counts shows a similar
imbalance. At the end of 2004, an estimated
By the end of 2004, the global cyberspace of 85% of the world’s 265 million Internet host
the Internet was populated by more than 870 computers were in North America and
million users world-wide, according to esti- Europe, but only 2.5% were in Latin America
mates published by the International and a mere 0.16% were in Africa, where most
Telecommunication Union (ITU, 2005). of them were concentrated in the Republic of
More reliable than estimated user numbers South Africa (ITU, 2005). The most recent
are counts of Internet host computers. 1 user estimates published by ITU (2005) indi-
A July 2005 count by Network Wizards put cate that in the world-wide average there are
the figure for host computers world-wide at 13.86 Internet users per 100 persons. The cor-
above 350 million (ITU, 2005). A quarter responding figures for the USA and Canada
century ago, in August 1981, there were only are 62 and for 63%, for Europe 31.8%, for
213 hosts, which were accessed by not more Australia/Oceania 51.7%, Asia 8.3%, and for
than a few thousand users (ITU, 1999; Africa 2.6%. There are also great disparities
Zakon, 2002). According to a widely shared within regions. In Latin America, for exam-
assumption, the price for Internet access is ple, the corresponding user figures range
bound to decline with competitive mass from 27.9% in Chile and 23.5% in Costa Rica
production of the necessary hardware and, as down to 2.5% in Paraguay and 2.2% in
a consequence, the number of users was and Nicaragua, while the most populous coun-
is expected to continue its rapid rise. Current tries, Brazil and Mexico, have averages of
trends were and are seen as strongly suggest- 12.1% and 13.4% respectively (ITU, 2005).
ing that in a few years, Internet access will be There is a plausible expectation that the
just as common for the majority of people in share of less represented regions will rise as
the industrialized zones of the world as the penetration rates in North America and
newspaper, radio, and television are today, Europe approach saturation levels, yet these
while there may be at least a partial conver- uneven distribution figures need to be kept in
gence of these media. Prognoses, however, mind when discussing the rise of the Internet
that predicted constant annual growth rates and the diffusion of the new information and
of 100% for the early years of the new cen- telecommunication technologies. Only one-
tury (Odlyzko, 2001) have already proved third of the world’s Internet users reside out-
wrong. side OECD countries, while of the world’s
Although the Internet can already be broadband users, it is less than a fifth
accessed in virtually every country of the (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and
world, the distribution of access is very Development [OECD], 2005). More striking
uneven. Internet access in the financially yet is the imbalance when looking at the
weaker countries still continues to be largely access opportunities in the poorest countries.
restricted to educated urban elites. This is As the OECD (2005) observed, the 45 least
especially true for countries in Africa, south connected countries, together, have no more
of the Sahara and north of the Republic of international connectivity than a single
South Africa. Latin America takes an inter- high-end user with a 100 mega bits per second
mediate position, as there are some countries broadband line in Japan. Yet, the meaning
with little infrastructure and others that are of center and periphery does not neatly coin-
developing rapidly. cide with national borders, if it ever did.