Last month, the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency released a new composition of global mobile and Internet use data. The data, which is now part of the spy agency’s publically available World Factbook was released as part of the World Telecommunication And Information Society day, contains aggregate measures of mobile-cellular (voice and text messages) and Internet use in ten countries around the world.
With over 800 million mobile phone users and almost 400 million Internet users, China unsurprisingly tops both lists. Still, the numbers reflect only a portion of China’s 1.3 billion citizens. India and the United States come in second place for mobile and Internet users, respectively. More specifically, the United States has 245 million Internet users, well above the next highest, Japan, with a little under 100 million of it’s citizens going online. Notably, every member of the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, China) is well represented in terms of mobile and internet users, with no BRIC country below 10th place on either list. Finally, there were two surprising entries on the lists: Pakistan with 111 million mobile-cellular users and Nigeria with almost 44 million Internet users.
What do the stats tell us about mobile phone and Internet use globally? That mobile phones are far closer to approaching global ubiquity than Internet access. In every country on the list mobile usages is far higher — sometimes double — that of Internet usage. The implications are clear: for all it’s benefits, it is mobile, not the Internet, that is becoming the world’s universal form of communication, particularly in regions and countries in the developing world where a low-cost mobile phone are the only two-way communication technology within reach of many of even the poorest families.
What does this mean for the cleared job seeker? First, knowledge of mobile infrastructure, even if not counting new advances in smartphones and wireless data, will continue to be a valued job skill for the foreseeable future, both inside and outside the public sector. Second, the explosion of information-communication technology use, both mobile and Internet in the developing world will make IT security and cybersecurity a critical and in-demand field in the coming decade. So, if you do not have these skills, now it is the time to acquire them, and if you do, now might be the time to parley them into a better job and bigger paycheck.
Mike Jones is a researcher, writer, and analyst on national and international security. He lives in the DC area.
