Before Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies can have a global impact, consumers will need easy access to broadband internet. Right now, that is a much bigger struggle than people think. It is evident this will be quite an uphill battle in a lot of regions around the world, including the United States and China. Below are the six countries where access to broadband internet is either impossible or too expensive. The full report can be found here.
6. Japan
Even though we have seen a recent cryptocurrency adoption surge in Japan, a lot of people still have no broadband internet connection. More specifically, close to 20 million residents, both in urban and rural areas combined have no (affordable) access to broadband internet. That sounds quite strange in 2017, but it is the harsh reality for anyone living in Japan, unfortunately.
5. Russia
No one will be surprised to learn a lot of people in Russia have limited access to broadband internet. Even if they do, the information available to them is subject to government regulation and censorship. To put this into solid numbers over 39 million residents in Russia do not have access to proper internet connectivity. The number is a lot lower than people would anticipate, but it is still alarmingly high.
4. United States
Seeing the United States on this list is not entirely surprising either, to say the least. What is rather remarkable is how the vast majority of non-broadband internet users are living in urban areas. That means there is either little broadband internet competition in these regions, or subscriptions are vastly overpriced. With over 78 million US residents not connected to broadband internet, it is evident something will need to change sooner rather than later.
3. Brazil
Brazil is one of those developing countries where broadband internet is only slowly becoming a mainstream commodity. This is rather evident when looking at the number of people not connected to high-speed internet right now. In Brazil, that number sits at just over 90 million, which is quite substantial. Over 75% of these citizens live in rural areas, where broadband internet access is not all that affordable.
2. China
Seeing China in the list of regions where access to broadband internet is a struggle is to be expected. Many people even assumed the country to be first on the list, but that is not the case. This is not due to a shortage of people not having access to broadband internet, though. More specifically, China is home to over 640 million people waiting to be connected to broadband internet. It will be quite challenging to overcome this number, considering over half of them live in rural areas.
1. India
For a country where mobile internet is quickly becoming the norm, one would expect most people in India to have some access to broadband internet speeds. Sadly, that is not the case, as over 900 million have limited or no access to broadband connectivity right now. Almost 80% of those people live in rural areas, where even mobile internet connectivity can be very tricky at best. Solving this issue will be incredibly difficult, although the Indian government is – allegedly – working on solutions as we speak.
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