China catches up on US for fast internet as Africa gets left behind

Almost 300 million people worldwide are now accessing the internet using fast broadband connections, fuelling the growth of social networking services such as MySpace and generating thousands of hours of video through websites such as YouTube.

There are more than 1.1 billion of the world's estimated 6.6 billion people online and almost a third of them are now accessing the internet on high-speed lines. According to the internet consultancy Point Topic, 298 million people had broadband at the end of March and that is already estimated to have shot over 300 million. The statistics, however, paint a picture of a divided digital world.

	The US - with broadband penetration at just under 53% - is in 24th place.	Guardian Unlimited	Thu Jun 14	0
	Govt to launch national broadband plan	Australian Broadcasting Corporation	Sun Jun 17	0