Home broadband use in the US has plateaued

Source:  Pew Research Center, 21st December 2015

Over 70% of EU households have a broadband connection

"Broadband access at home is the reality for 3/4 of households: 72.5% of EU households now have a broadband connection, up from 67.3% in 2011 (Source: Eurostat). The number leapt by 20 percentage points in Romania and by 16.7 points in Slovakia, with more than 50% of households now having a broadband connection across all member states. And the division between phone & Internet is blurring fast: 34% use the internet to make voice calls (Voice over Internet Protocol or "VOIP"), up 7 points in 2012. 28% uses the internet to talk to users on the same VOIP network for free, and 4% use VOIP to make cheaper international calls. Web-based calls are extremely popular in Bulgaria (57%), Cyprus (55%), Estonia (54%), Lithuania & Latvia (51%). VOIP is less used in Portugal (18%), Italy, (26%), Spain (28%) & Greece (29%), but becoming more popular, with use growing by an average of 7 points since 2011. The increase in VOIP use seems to track the growth in broadband; for example, in Cyprus, there were 11% more connected households in 2012 and VOIP use grew by 16 points."

Source:  Press release from the European Commission, 13th August 2013

There are 193m 3G subscribers in China

"China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) has released its August 2012 telecom industry statistics. The figures for the month were as follows:
[...]
Total telephone subscribers saw a net increase of 9.21 mln in August to reach 1.354 bln. Mobile subscribers grew by 10.21 mln to 1.072 bln, and fixed-line subscribers dropped by 1.01 mln to 282.18 mln. Broken down by traditional fixed-line and PHS, the traditional (i.e. non-PHS) fixed-line subscriber base decreased by 678,000 to 268.39 mln, while the PHS subscriber base declined by 328,000 subs to 13.79 mln. 8.80 mln new 3G subscribers were added in August to reach a total 3G user base of 192.56 mln.
A total of 73.07 bln SMS messages were sent during the month of August, bringing the total for the first 8 months of 2012 to 597.58 bln, a 3.9% increase over the figure during the same period of 2011.
Broadband added 1.86 mln new registered users in August to reach a total of 168.29 mln. Dial-up decreased by 1.02 mln users, reducing the total dial-up user base to 4.70 mln."
Source:  MIIT via Marbridge Daily, 21st September 2012

Nearly 90% of American internet homes have broadband

"New consumer research from Leichtman Research Group, Inc. (LRG) found that nearly 90% of US households that use a laptop or desktop computer at home currently subscribe to a broadband Internet service. Five years ago, 65% of households with a computer subscribed to a broadband service.
LRG's research also found that higher-income households are much more likely than lower income households to use computers at home, and to subscribe to residential broadband services"

Source:  Press release from Leichtman Research, 4th September 2012

There are 176m 3G subscribers in China

"Total telephone subscribers saw a net increase of 11.01 mln in June to reach 1.335 bln. Mobile subscribers grew by 11.26 mln to 1.052 bln, and fixed-line subscribers dropped by 249,000 to 283.31 mln. Broken down by traditional fixed-line and PHS, the traditional (i.e. non-PHS) fixed-line subscriber base increased by 180,000 to 268.75 mln, while the PHS subscriber base declined by 429,000 subs to 14.56 mln. 9.08 mln new 3G subscribers were added in June to reach a total 3G user base of 175.75 mln.
A total of 75.21 bln SMS messages were sent during the month of June, bringing the total for the first 6 months of 2012 to 450.76 bln, a 5.2% increase over the figure during the same period of 2011.
Broadband added 2.50 mln new registered users in June to reach a total of 164.03 mln. Dial-up decreased by 9,000 users, reducing the total dial-up user base to 5.74 mln."

Source:  MIIT, via Marbridge Daily, 24th July 2012

The internet in 2011

A whole slew of useful stats, including:
"2.1 billion – Internet users worldwide.
922.2 million – Internet users in Asia.
476.2 million – Internet users in Europe.
271.1 million – Internet users in North America.
215.9 million – Internet users in Latin America / Caribbean.
118.6 million – Internet users in Africa.
68.6 million – Internet users in the Middle East.
21.3 million – Internet users in Oceania / Australia.
45% – Share of Internet users under the age of 25.
485 million – Number of Internet users in China, more than any other country in the world.
36.3% – Internet penetration in China.
591 million – Number of fixed (wired) broadband subscriptions worldwide."

Source:  Multiple, collected together by Pingdom, 17th January 2012

Lots more stats, all fully sourced, here

Entertainment (e.g. Netflix) accounts for 60% of US web traffic at peak times

"Within fixed networks in the United States, Real-Time Entertainment applications are the primary drivers of network capacity requirements, accounting for 60% of peak downstream traffic, up from 50% in 2010. Rate-adaptive video represents the majority of video bandwidth, with Netflix alone representing 32.7% of peak downstream traffic, a relative increase of more than 10% since spring.
We have entered the “Post-PC Era”, as the majority of Real-Time Entertainment traffic (55%, by volume) is destined for game consoles, set-top boxes, smart TVs, and mobile devices being used in the home, with only 45% actually going to desktop and laptop computers over North American fixed networks.
Video in mobile networks continues to gain momentum.  In North America, Real-Time Entertainment is now 32.6% of peak downstream traffic, while in Asia Pacific it is 41.8%.  The largest contributor is YouTube, and other applications like peercasting PPStream and Netflix are making inroads.
Mobile Marketplace traffic accounts for 9.4% of peak downstream usage in APAC and 5.8% in North America, led in both cases by Apple and Google. Applications like Skype and WhatsApp Messenger, that replace the traditional revenue sources of voice and texting, are being installed by growing numbers of subscribers.
In North America on fixed networks, mean usage remained generally flat at the high end (22.7 GB from 23.0 GB reported in May) and median usage dropped to 5.8 GB from 7.0 GB. This shows that while subscribers aren’t using more traffic overall the usage gap between heavy and light users is broadening and that more data is being used during the small peak period window.  In Asia-Pacific fixed networks, median monthly usage is 17.7 GB, which is the largest we have observed."

Source:  Data from Sandvine, reported in a press release, 26th October 2011

There are 420m people online in China (updated)

Click to enlarge

"Up to June, 2010, the number of net citizens in China has reached 420 million, exceeding the point of 400 million, with an increase of 36 million compared to the end of 2009. The popularity rate of internet has climbed up to 31.8%, with an increase of 2.9% compared to the end of 2009.
The number of broadband net citizens has reached 363,810,000, and the popularity rate of broadband for users who surf the internet using computer has arrived at 98.1%."
Source:  Statistical Report on Internet Development in China, July 2010, CNNIC, Translated August 2010

Vodafone generate one third of their revenues from non-voice activities

""We now generate 33 percent of service revenue from products other than mobile voice reflecting the shift of Vodafone to a total communications provider.
"In particular, mobile data and fixed broadband services continue to grow while we increased the contribution being made by our operations in emerging economies, primarily by gaining market share.""
Source: Vodafone chief executive Vittorio Colao, reported by AFP, 18th May 2010

31% of American households have no internet connection

"Just 31 percent of American households lacked an Internet connection as of October 2009, down from 38 percent in 2007. The vast majority of those homes use a broadband connection, with the share of households with a dial-up connection slipping below 5 percent, according to data released by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration and the U.S. Census Bureau"
Source: National Telecommunications and Information Administration and the U.S. Census Bureau, reported in Mercury News, 19th February 2010

European internet and broadband penetration rates 2006-9 as percent of households

Click to enlarge

E.g. in Belgium in 2009 67% of households have access to the internet, and 63% have access to broadband

Source: Eurostat, 2nd December 2009
Lots more data in the full document!

Japan has the highest advertised broadband speeds

Source: OECD, cited by the BBC, 26th May 2009

90.6% of Chinese internet users access the internet using a broadband connection

90.6% of Chinese internet users access the internet using a broadband connection, while 42.4% access using a Narrowband connection (clearly some use both).
Source: Page 34, 23rd Statistical Survey Report on the Internet Development in China, CNNIC Jan 2009, published in English in March 2009

There were 298m internet users in China in December 2008

"China's Internet population swelled to nearly 300 million by the end of last year, with the penetration surpassing the global average for the first time, according to a quasi-government organization.
The number of Internet users in the country reached 298 million by the end of 2008, representing a 41.9 percent growth compared to the previous year, said a report by the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC).
More than 90 percent of the Internet users surf the Web via broadband access, CNNIC said. The penetration stood at 22.6 percent by Dec 31, compared to a global average of 21.9 percent.
That represented a major leap forward for China since the country overtook the United States as the world’s largest Internet population in June, 2008, CNNIC said."
Source: CNNIC (China Internet Network Information Centre), January 2009, quoted by China Daily, 13th January 2009

63% of rural homes in the UK have broadband, compared to 57% of urban ones

"The regulator's regional communications market report shows that 59% of rural households have broadband compared to 57% of urban homes.
It is the first time that the country has overtaken the town, according to the report.
Four years ago urban dwellers were twice as likely to have broadband as those living in the country. "
Source: BBC, 21st May 2008, citing OFCOM research