• by May 19, 2006

Get this: More than one billion people globally now have access to the Internet, and a quarter of them have broadband access, according to a new report from eMarketer.

The U.S. continues to lead the world in terms of sheer numbers of Internet users and broadband households, with 175 million Web users and 43.7 million broadband households. The eMarketer report, "Worldwide Online Access 2004-2010," projects that there will be 78.3 million online households in the U.S. this year, and 66.7 percent of them will have broadband service. By 2010, nearly 90 percent (88.3 percent of online households) will be broadband-enabled, according to the eMarketer report.

The report estimates that 845 million of the 1 billion Internet users are active users (accessing the Internet more than once a month), and 195 million households worldwide have a broadband connection.

Asia-Pacific is the biggest region in terms of broadband connectivity, with nearly 40 percent of the world's high-speed Internet households. Western Europe and North America each had about 50 million broadband households in 2005. Latin America was the fastest growing broadband region worldwide, achieving 70 percent subscriber growth, according to the survey. However, it only had 70 million people online. Europe logged 233 million people online and 55.2 million broadband households, while China had 111 million users and 34.1 million households with broadband connections.

The report was based on industry surveys and data from the International Telecommunication Union and Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development.

The pivotal 1 billion figure popped in late 2005, according to the eMarketer report.