Sources: Global news reports and press releases from Sept 9–10, 2025 (Reuters, Al Jazeera, Times of India, StateScoop, TS2 Space, and others) were used in compiling this roundup timesofindia.indiatimes.com aljazeera.com space.com reuters.com reuters.com prescottenews.com prescottenews.com prnewswire.com statescoop.com, along with statements from officials and industry leaders aljazeera.com aljazeera.com. Each development reflects the rapidly evolving landscape of…
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Key Facts Overview: A Nation Still Largely Offline Papua New Guinea (PNG) faces an uphill battle in bringing internet access to its population, which is dispersed across difficult terrain and hundreds of islands. General internet penetration remains very low – only about 24.1% of the population were internet users at the start of 2025 datareportal.com…
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Lesotho’s internet use shows a stark urban–rural divide: about 77% of urban residents use the internet compared with 43% of rural residents, while roughly 31% of the population lives in urban areas and 69% in rural areas. Mobile broadband is the backbone of connectivity, with Vodacom Lesotho and Econet Telecom Lesotho (ETL) delivering 3G coverage…
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The BEAD program provides $42.45 billion in federal broadband funding administered by the NTIA to states to extend high-speed internet, with a 2025 policy shift to technology-neutral approaches that allow satellite solutions. The Affordable Connectivity Program provides a $30 per month subsidy and had about 18 million enrolled by 2023, with renewal funding uncertain in…
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As of early 2025, about 4.88 million Salvadorans are online, representing 76.9% of the population. The telecom sector privatized in 1997, leading to competition among Claro (~40%), Tigo (~25%), Digicel (~11%), Movistar (~6%), and Others (~5%) for fixed broadband. Mobile networks cover about 93% of the territory, and 92% of Salvadorans have at least 3G…
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In June 2024, Timor-Leste landed the TLSSC submarine cable, about 607 km to Australia with 27 Tbps capacity, built by Alcatel Submarine Networks, connecting Dili to Australia’s NWCS via Darwin and Port Hedland. Starlink launched in Timor-Leste in December 2024, becoming the 116th country with Starlink coverage and achieving nationwide signal by December 13, 2024.…
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The Democratic Republic of the Congo has a population of over 100 million, but only about 27% were using the internet in early 2024, leaving roughly 75 million offline. <li Internet users rose from 1.4 million in 2013 to 28.9 million in 2023, with mobile internet subscribers jumping about 40% over three years. <li As…
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As of early 2025, 41.1 million Colombians were internet users, representing about 77% of the population. By 2025 Colombia had 78.3 million cellular mobile connections in service, roughly 147% of the population. The urban–rural gap remains wide: 63.9% of households had internet in 2023, 28.8% of the rural population were online, and fewer than 13%…
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As of 2023, internet penetration in Burkina Faso is about 20%, with roughly 4.7 million active internet users in a 23 million population. By late 2023 there were about 17 million mobile internet subscriptions, offering ~77% potential coverage though many subscribers are not active. Fixed broadband remains extremely limited, with about 85,000 active fixed internet…
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A 2,000 km national fiber optic backbone begun in 2016 was completed by mid-2021 and is being extended to all municipalities by 2025 under a CFA207 billion (~$330 million) plan to reach 3,300 km. Benin sits on multiple landing undersea cables such as ACE and MainOne for international bandwidth, but it still has only 1…
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