While citizens in first-world countries are complaining about their 25 Mbps Internet speed and craving a fiber optic connection, the other 57 percent of the world's population is yet to experience emailing, according to the United Nations.
The Internet, a vital tool in education, social awareness and global communication, remains unavailable to 90 percent of residents in 48 of the world's poorest countries.
By the end of 2015, about 4 billion people will remain shut-out from the world of the Internet, the UN reports in "The State of Broadband 2015" [pdf].
Meanwhile, 82 percent of the population in developing countries has Internet access. Europeans and Americans enjoy service speeds of 25 Mbps up to more than 100 Mbps. In the United States, a 150 Mbps connection costs $130 monthly. Some Asian countries, however, lag behind. The average Internet speed in the Philippines, for instance, is 2 Mbps and it costs roughly $22 monthly.
According to Facebook-initiated Internet.org, half of the world's population does not have Internet access because of the cost of devices and service plans.
People in underdeveloped countries have yet to see the value of the Internet. Internet.org provides free online connectivity to show people the benefits of getting connected.
Language barriers also pose a problem in getting the world online. Only about 5 percent of the world's estimated 7,100 languages is represented on the Internet. Many Internet users do not use Latin script. Even reading domain names is a challenge.
On the positive side, the situation is predicted to get better after 2015. About 60 percent of the world should have access by 2021, helped by a big spike in mobile Internet use. The number of mobile data subscriptions could come close to match those of mobile phone subscriptions by 2020.
As regards language barriers, Google Translate, for its part, expands its list of languages every year to accommodate more people who are not fluent in English. Bilingual citizens may go to the Google Translate website to correct translations and help the app become more accurate.
Free data connection bundled with regular smartphone plans is also a good idea.
