CIA posts Top 10 world-wide Internet and mobile phone usage lists?

The folks at the Central Intelligence Agency had an interesting way to celebrate today's World Telecommunications & Information Society Day.  It pulled what it termed " interesting information on mobile phone and internet usage" from its The World Factbook- the CIA's reference resource.  According to the CIA's web site The World Factbook  offers information on the history, people, government, economy, geography, communications, transportation, military, and transnational issues for 267 world entities.

For example for today the CIA noted:

• Brazil's mobile-cellular usage has more than tripled in the past 5 years.
• The estimated number of mobile subscribers in Russia jumped from fewer than 1 million in 1998 to nearly 240 million by the end of 2010.
• Pakistani mobile-cellular subscribership has skyrocketed, from about 300,000 in 2000 to over 110 million by the end of 2011; more than 90 percent of Pakistanis have cell phone coverage at home.

Then it provided a couple Top 10 lists:

Number of Mobile Phone Users

1.       China 859,000,000

2.       India 752,000,000

3.       United States 279,000,000

4.       Russia 238,000,000

5.       Indonesia 220,000,000

6.       Brazil 202,944,000

7.       Vietnam  154,000,000

8.       Japan 121,000,000

9.       Pakistan 111,000,000

10.     Germany 105,000,000

Number of Internet Users

1.       China 389,000,000

2.       United States 245,000,000

3.       Japan 99,182,000

4.       Brazil 75,982,000

5.       Germany 65,125,000

6.       India 61,338,000

7.       United Kingdom 51,444,000

8.       France 45,262,000

9.       Nigeria 43,989,000

10.     Russia 40,853,000

Go figure.

The ITU, which promotes the World Telecommunications & Information Society Day was a little more celebratory awarding Actress Geena Davis, President of Argentina Cristina Fernández de Kirchner and Huawei Chairman Sun Yafang the 2012 ITU World Telecommunication and Information Society Award for their efforts promoting information and communications technology to empower women and girls.

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