How many people use the internet worldwide?

According to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), about 5.5 billion people — around 68 percent of the world’s population — were using the internet in 2024. That leaves about 2.6 billion people offline, most of them in low-income countries and rural areas.

When did the internet first connect different countries?

The ARPANET, a forerunner of the internet, began in the United States in 1969. In 1973 it made its first international connections, to NORSAR in Norway and University College London in Britain. Through the 1980s and 1990s, networks in Europe, Japan, Australia, India, South Africa, China, and elsewhere joined the global internet.

How does internet data travel between continents?

Most data travelling between continents goes through undersea fibre-optic cables laid on the ocean floor — more than 500 of them today. Satellites carry a small share, mainly for remote places, ships, and aircraft. The cable routes follow a tradition that began with undersea telegraph cables in the 1850s and 1860s.

When did the internet come to India?

Indian universities and research institutes were linked through ERNET, the Education and Research Network, from 1986. Public internet access began on 15 August 1995, when the state-owned VSNL launched its service. Today India has the world’s second-largest number of internet users, after China.

When did the World Wide Web become available worldwide?

Tim Berners-Lee proposed the World Wide Web at CERN, the European physics laboratory near Geneva, in 1989, and it was opened to the public in 1991. On 30 April 1993 CERN released the web software into the public domain, allowing anyone in the world to use it freely, and the web spread rapidly across the globe.

Who runs the internet?

No single government or company runs the internet. It is made up of thousands of connected networks. Technical standards are developed by bodies such as the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) and the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), domain names and addresses are coordinated by ICANN and five regional internet registries, and the UN’s Internet Governance Forum brings governments, companies, and citizens together to discuss policy.

What is the digital divide?

The digital divide is the gap between people who have affordable, reliable internet access and digital skills and those who do not. It exists between rich and poor countries, cities and villages, men and women, and young and old. Closing it is one of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals.

What is mobile money and why was it important?

Mobile money lets people store and send money using a mobile phone, even a basic one without internet. Kenya’s M-Pesa service, launched in 2007, became a global example, bringing banking services to millions of people without bank accounts. India’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI), launched in 2016, later made instant phone payments common across the country.

How did cheap mobile data change India’s internet?

After a new mobile network launched in September 2016 with free and then very low-cost 4G data, competition drove Indian mobile data prices down to among the lowest in the world. Data use soared, hundreds of millions of people came online for the first time, mostly by smartphone, and services such as UPI payments grew rapidly.

What are internet shutdowns and censorship?

Some governments block websites, filter content, or switch off internet access in a region, often during protests, exams, or unrest. China’s system of internet controls, often called the Great Firewall, is the best-known example of censorship. Digital rights groups record hundreds of shutdowns worldwide each year, and the UN Human Rights Council has affirmed that people have the same rights online as offline.

World History Timeline

Global Internet Timeline: Wiring the World → Networks Cross Borders → The Web Goes Global → Digital Divide → Mobile Planet → Connecting Everyone

The internet is often told as a story of inventors and protocols. This timeline tells it as a world story — how cables were laid across oceans, how country after country joined the network, who governs it, and how billions of people in Asia, Africa, and Latin America came online through mobile phones. It is a story of connection and opportunity, but also of gaps, censorship, and the 2.6 billion people who are still offline.

This timeline covers undersea telegraph cables, the 1870 cable to India, the first telephone cable and communication satellites, the first international computer links, Minitel, ERNET, the web’s release by CERN, the first connections in South Africa, China, and India, ICANN, the world information summits, mobile money, the Arab Spring, net neutrality in India, cheap data, UPI, GDPR, the pandemic, 5G, satellite internet, and the Global Digital Compact.

1866 transatlantic cable → 1973 first international network links 1993 web free for all → 15 Aug 1995 internet in India 2018 half the world online → 2024 about 5.5 billion users

Why the Global Internet Matters

In just a few decades the internet has gone from a handful of research computers to a network used by most of humanity. It carries trade, banking, news, education, healthcare, and friendships across borders in an instant. But access is still uneven, and questions about who controls the network, how data is protected, and whether governments can censor or shut it down have become some of the most important political issues of our time.

Big picture

The global internet in one view

Telegraph and telephone cables first wired the continents, research networks began crossing borders in the 1970s and 1980s, the web spread to nearly every country in the 1990s, the 2000s brought debates over the digital divide and who governs the internet, cheap smartphones put billions online in the 2010s, and today the goal is to connect everyone safely and fairly. For the technology itself, see the internet technology timeline; related timelines: computer networking, mobile phones.

~5.5 billion

Internet users worldwide in 2024 (ITU estimate)

~68%

Share of the world’s people online in 2024

~2.6 billion

People still offline in 2024

500+

Undersea cables linking the continents

Split image with a teenager in 1995 waiting at a desk with a beige boxy monitor, keyboard, and dial-up modem with blinking lights under a desk lamp on the left, and an Indian grandmother, mother, and daughter smiling at a video call on a smartphone and tablet in a bright home on the right — Waiting for a dial-up connection in 1995, and three generations on a video call today (artistic illustration).

The Connected World Then vs Now

Feature	Mid-1990s	Today
People online	About 16 million in 1995, under 1% of the world	About 5.5 billion, around two-thirds of the world
Where users lived	Mostly North America and Western Europe	Asia has more than half of all users
How people connected	Dial-up modems on desktop computers	Mostly smartphones over 4G, 5G, fibre, and Wi-Fi
Languages	Overwhelmingly English	Content in hundreds of languages, including Hindi, Tamil, Bengali, and Swahili
India	Public internet launched in 1995 for a small number of users	The world’s second-largest internet population
Paying for things	Cash, cheques, and cards	Mobile money and instant payment systems such as UPI
Crossing oceans	A few fibre-optic and copper cables plus satellites	More than 500 undersea fibre cables
Going online in public	Cyber cafés and university labs	Public Wi-Fi, village digital centres, and personal phones
Rules and rights	Few internet laws	Data protection laws, such as Europe’s GDPR (2018) and India’s DPDP Act (2023)

🔌 Wiring the World1850 – 1968

Wiring the World

Long before computers, the world was already being wired together. Undersea telegraph cables linked Europe, America, India, and Australia in the 1800s, and telephone cables and satellites followed in the 1900s. The routes and landing points chosen for these cables still shape where internet cables run today. In the 1960s, scientists in the United States and Britain developed packet switching, the idea at the heart of the internet.

Deck of a huge 1860s steamship with several funnels and tall masts, with giant iron cable drums and wheels paying out a thick telegraph cable over the side into a grey, choppy ocean while men in Victorian coats and caps watch — A giant steamship pays out an undersea telegraph cable across the Atlantic (artistic illustration).

1850–1866: The first undersea telegraph cable crosses the English Channel (1850–1851), a transatlantic cable works briefly in 1858, and a lasting cable between Ireland and Newfoundland is laid in 1866.
1870–1902: A direct undersea telegraph cable links Britain with Bombay (1870), Australia is connected (1872), and a cable across the Pacific completes a telegraph link around the world (1902).
1956–1965: The first transatlantic telephone cable opens (1956), the Soviet Union launches Sputnik (1957), and the first commercial communication satellite carries calls and television across the Atlantic (1965).
1960s: Paul Baran in the United States and Donald Davies in Britain independently develop packet switching — breaking messages into small blocks that can travel separately across a network.

Technology

Undersea telegraph cables: Messages across oceans.
Communication satellites: Signals from space.
Packet switching: The core internet idea.

Features

Global telegraph: The “Victorian internet”.
Empire routes: Cables linked colonies to Europe.
Space race: Satellites for communication.

🔗 Networks Cross Borders1969 – 1989

Networks Cross Borders

The US ARPANET began in 1969 and soon reached across the Atlantic. Meanwhile, other countries built their own networks — France’s Minitel, Britain’s JANET, Japan’s JUNET, and research networks in Europe, Australia, and India. In the 1980s these separate networks began to join the shared internet, and country codes such as .uk and .in gave nations their own place online.

1970s university computer room with tall cabinets of tape drives and blinking lights, researchers in wide-collared clothes at teletype terminals printing on continuous paper, a woman reading a long printout, and two men pointing at a chalkboard diagram of connected circles — Researchers sketch a network map in a 1970s university computer room (artistic illustration).

1969–1973: The ARPANET sends its first message between two US universities (29 October 1969), and in 1973 makes its first international links, to NORSAR in Norway and University College London.
1976–1984: Public data networks spread in Europe and beyond, France launches Minitel nationwide (1982), the ARPANET switches to the TCP/IP protocols (1 January 1983), and Japan’s JUNET and the worldwide FidoNet begin (1984).
1985–1986: The first country-code domains, such as .us, .uk, and .il, are created (1985), India launches ERNET to link universities and research institutes (1986), and the US NSFNET backbone opens to universities (1986).
1988–1989: Networks in Europe, Canada, Australia, and Asia join the NSFNET, the first commercial internet service providers appear (1989), and Tim Berners-Lee proposes the World Wide Web at CERN (March 1989).

Technology

TCP/IP: A common language for networks.
Country-code domains: .uk, .in, .jp, and more.
Videotex terminals: France’s Minitel.

Features

Research first: Universities lead the way.
National networks: Each country builds its own.
Joining up: A network of networks.

🌐 The Web Goes Global1990 – 1999

The Web Goes Global

The World Wide Web, created at CERN in Europe and given freely to the world, made the internet easy to use. In just a few years, South Africa, China, Russia, India, and dozens of other countries made their first full connections, and cyber cafés opened from Lagos to Lima to Lucknow. New fibre-optic cables circled the globe, and a new body, ICANN, was set up to coordinate internet names and addresses.

Late-1990s cyber café in an Indian city with rows of beige boxy monitors in wooden cubicles, young men on plastic chairs browsing and typing, a wall clock and notice board, a ceiling fan, and a street with lights visible through the open doorway at dusk — Students and workers go online at a city cyber café in the late 1990s (artistic illustration).

1991–1993: The web is opened to the public (1991), South Africa makes its first internet connection (1991), and CERN releases the web’s software into the public domain (30 April 1993), letting anyone use it free.
1994–1995: China makes its first full internet connection (20 April 1994), Russia gets the .ru domain (1994), and India’s state-owned VSNL launches public internet access on 15 August 1995.
1996–1997: Estonia’s Tiger Leap programme begins connecting all its schools (1996), and the FLAG fibre-optic cable links Britain to Japan through the Middle East and Mumbai (1997).
1998–1999: ICANN is founded to manage domain names and internet addresses (1998), private internet service providers are allowed in India (1998), and fears of the “Y2K” computer bug spread worldwide (1999).

Technology

Web browsers: Pictures and links for everyone.
Fibre-optic cables: Huge capacity across oceans.
Dial-up modems: Home access over phone lines.

Features

Free web: Released to the public domain.
Countries connect: From Johannesburg to Beijing.
Cyber cafés: Shared public access.

⚖️ Digital Divide2000 – 2009

Digital Divide & Global Debate

As the internet reached a billion people, the world began to worry about those left behind. UN summits debated the “digital divide” and who should govern the internet. Some governments built systems to censor it, and cyberattacks showed how it could be used as a weapon. At the same time, mobile phones began to leapfrog fixed lines in Africa and Asia, and Kenya’s mobile money showed what was possible.

Busy East African market with a smiling vegetable seller in a colourful headwrap and dress holding out a basic keypad phone towards a customer in a headscarf holding another basic phone, with piles of tomatoes and mangoes, a green kiosk, and a motorbike behind — A market trader receives a mobile-money payment on a basic phone in East Africa (artistic illustration).

2000–2003: The dot-com crash hits technology companies (2000), India passes its Information Technology Act (2000), and the first UN World Summit on the Information Society meets in Geneva (2003).
2005–2006: Internet users pass about one billion (around 2005), the second world summit in Tunis calls for a global forum, and the UN Internet Governance Forum holds its first meeting in Athens (2006).
2007–2008: Kenya launches M-Pesa mobile money (2007), cyberattacks hit Estonia’s government and banks (2007), and China overtakes the United States as the country with the most internet users (2008).
2009: The SEACOM undersea cable brings broadband to East Africa’s coast, joining new cables that end many African countries’ dependence on slow, costly satellite links.

Technology

Broadband: Always-on, faster connections.
SMS-based services: Mobile money on basic phones.
Content filtering: National censorship systems.

Features

Digital divide: Rich and poor, city and village.
Global governance: UN summits and forums.
Leapfrogging: Mobile before fixed lines.

📱 Mobile Planet2010 – 2019

Mobile Planet

Cheap smartphones and mobile data brought billions online, mostly in Asia and Africa. Social media helped organise protests, from the Arab Spring onwards, but also spread misinformation, and revelations about mass surveillance alarmed the world. India saw a mobile data revolution, a landmark net neutrality decision, and a new digital payments system, and by the end of 2018 more than half of humanity was online.

Huge crowd filling a city square at night with thousands of people holding up glowing smartphones, their faces lit by screens, surrounded by grand old stone buildings, street lamps, and a clock tower — Thousands of smartphones light up a city square as a connected generation shares the moment (artistic illustration).

2010–2013: Internet users reach about two billion (2010), social media plays a role in the Arab Spring protests (2010–2011), the UN Human Rights Council affirms the same rights online as offline (2012), and leaks reveal mass internet surveillance (2013).
2015–2016: India launches Digital India (2015), the regulator TRAI rules for net neutrality, barring differential data pricing (February 2016), UPI instant payments begin (2016), and a new 4G network sets off a price war that makes mobile data very cheap (September 2016).
2016–2018: The US government hands oversight of key internet address functions to the global ICANN community (1 October 2016), and Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) comes into force (25 May 2018).
2018–2019: More than half the world’s population is online by the end of 2018, according to the ITU, while governments in several countries increasingly order regional internet shutdowns.

Technology

4G networks: Fast mobile data.
Affordable smartphones: The main way to go online.
Instant payments: UPI and mobile wallets.

Features

Half the world online: A milestone in 2018.
Privacy and rights: GDPR and net neutrality.
Power of social media: Protest and misinformation.

🛰️ Connecting Everyone2020 – Today

Connecting Everyone

The COVID-19 pandemic made the internet essential for school, work, and healthcare, and exposed how many people were still cut off. New undersea cables, 5G networks, and low-orbit satellite constellations are extending coverage, while countries write new laws on data and artificial intelligence. The UN’s goal is universal, meaningful connectivity — affordable, safe internet for every person on Earth.

Children in school sweaters sitting in a sunny stone courtyard learning on tablets with their teacher, beside a stone schoolhouse with a slate roof carrying a satellite dish and a solar panel, with snow-capped Himalayan peaks and a deep blue sky behind — Children in a remote mountain village learn online through a satellite link (artistic illustration).

2020–2021: The COVID-19 pandemic moves schools, offices, and doctors’ appointments online worldwide, while millions of children without connections fall behind.
2022–2023: India launches 5G services (1 October 2022), artificial-intelligence chatbots reach hundreds of millions of users, India passes the Digital Personal Data Protection Act (2023), and users pass about 5.4 billion (2023).
2024: About 5.5 billion people — roughly 68 percent of the world — are online, according to the ITU, and the UN adopts the Global Digital Compact to promote an open, safe, and inclusive internet.
Today: Low-orbit satellite constellations and new undersea cables reach remote islands and villages, but about 2.6 billion people remain offline, most in low-income countries and rural areas.

Technology

5G: Faster, lower-delay mobile networks.
Satellite constellations: Thousands of low-orbit satellites.
AI services: Chatbots and translation online.

Features

Essential service: School, work, and health online.
Data laws: Protecting personal information.
Universal access: Connecting the last 2.6 billion.

Global Internet Users Over Time

Approximate figures based on International Telecommunication Union (ITU) estimates; early numbers are less certain.

Year	Internet users	Share of world population
1995	About 16 million	Under 1%
2000	About 400 million	About 7%
2005	About 1 billion	About 16%
2010	About 2 billion	About 29%
2015	About 3.2 billion	About 43%
2018	About 3.9 billion	Just over 50%
2023	About 5.4 billion	About 67%
2024	About 5.5 billion	About 68%

When Countries Joined the Network

Country	Milestone	Year
United States	ARPANET sends its first message	1969
Norway and Britain	First international ARPANET connections	1973
France	Minitel national online service launched	1982
Japan	JUNET university network begins	1984
India	ERNET research network; public internet through VSNL	1986; 1995
Australia	AARNet links universities to the internet	1989
South Africa	First internet connection, at a university	1991
China	First full internet connection	1994
Estonia	Tiger Leap programme connects schools; later a pioneer of e-government	1996
Kenya	M-Pesa mobile money launched	2007

Who Carries and Coordinates the Internet

Workers in white and orange hard hats and orange life vests hauling a thick black undersea cable supported by white floats up a sandy tropical beach towards a small concrete landing station under palm trees, with a large cable-laying ship anchored in turquoise water — Workers haul a new undersea fibre-optic cable ashore to a landing station (artistic illustration).

Part of the system	Since	Role
Undersea fibre-optic cables	1988 (first transatlantic fibre)	Carry most data between continents
Communication satellites	1960s	Reach ships, aircraft, and remote areas
Internet exchange points and data centres	1990s	Where networks meet and data is stored
Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)	1986	Develops technical standards
World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)	1994	Develops web standards
ICANN	1998	Coordinates domain names and internet addresses
Regional internet registries	1992–2005	Five bodies hand out addresses for Europe, Asia-Pacific, North America, Latin America, and Africa
International Telecommunication Union (ITU)	1865	UN agency for telecommunications; measures global connectivity
Internet Governance Forum	2006	UN meeting place for governments, companies, and citizens

India on the Global Internet

Year	Milestone
1870	Direct undersea telegraph cable links Bombay with Britain
1986	ERNET links Indian universities and research institutes
15 August 1995	VSNL launches public internet access
1997	The FLAG fibre-optic cable lands in Mumbai
1998	Private internet service providers allowed
2000	Information Technology Act passed
2015	Digital India programme launched
2016	TRAI net neutrality ruling, UPI payments, and the cheap-data revolution
2022	5G services launched
2023	Digital Personal Data Protection Act passed
Today	The world’s second-largest internet population and a global leader in real-time digital payments

The Digital Divide and Society

Young woman operator at a laptop in a village digital service centre with painted walls, helping smiling elderly women in saris and a turbaned farmer, one woman holding a smartphone, with a fingerprint scanner and papers on the wooden desk — A village digital centre operator helps elderly residents use online services (artistic illustration).

Issue	What it means
Rich and poor countries	Most people in high-income countries are online, but only a minority in the poorest countries
Cities and villages	Urban areas are far better connected than rural ones
Women and men	Fewer women than men use the internet worldwide, especially in low-income countries
Cost	Devices and data are still unaffordable for many families
Skills and language	Digital skills and content in local languages are needed to benefit fully
Censorship and shutdowns	Some governments block sites or switch off access during protests and unrest
Misinformation	False stories can spread quickly on social media and messaging apps
Cybersecurity and privacy	Scams, hacking, and data misuse affect individuals and governments
Digital public services	Online IDs, payments, and government services can widen access when designed for everyone

Global Internet Timeline Summary

Date	Milestone
1866	Lasting transatlantic telegraph cable
1870	Undersea telegraph cable links Britain and Bombay
1956	First transatlantic telephone cable
1965	First commercial communication satellite
29 October 1969	First ARPANET message
1973	First international links, to Norway and Britain
1982	Minitel launched across France
1985	First country-code domains
1986	India’s ERNET
1989	World Wide Web proposed at CERN
30 April 1993	Web software released free to the world
20 April 1994	China’s first full internet connection
15 August 1995	Public internet in India
1998	ICANN founded
2003 and 2005	World Summits on the Information Society
About 2005	One billion internet users
2007	M-Pesa mobile money in Kenya
2010–2011	Arab Spring
2016	Net neutrality ruling, UPI, and cheap data in India
25 May 2018	GDPR in force in Europe
End of 2018	Half the world online
2020	Pandemic moves life online
1 October 2022	5G launched in India
2024	About 5.5 billion users; Global Digital Compact

Timeline understanding World geography Data skills Digital citizenship

Make a timeline poster: 1866 transatlantic cable, 1973 first international links, 1993 web free for all, 1995 internet in India, 2007 mobile money, 2018 half the world online, and 2024 about 5.5 billion users.
On a world map, draw major undersea cable routes and mark where cables land in India.
Turn the global internet users table into a line graph and describe what it shows.
Interview a grandparent or older neighbour about the first time they used the internet or a mobile phone.
Make a fact card on how mobile money and UPI changed everyday payments.
List five reasons why some people are still offline and suggest a solution for each.
Compare how the internet arrived in India, China, and Kenya.
Create a poster on staying safe online: passwords, scams, and checking facts before sharing.
Explain what net neutrality means, using an example from India in 2016.
Debate: “Internet access should be a basic right for everyone.”

Continue exploring

The global internet is built on networking technology, mobile phones, and centuries of long-distance communication. Explore these connected timelines next.

Internet technology timeline Computer networking timeline Mobile phones timeline Communication timeline More India timelines All timelines

Moments Through Visual Stories

Click any panel to expand and explore the visual mood.

The global internet in pictures — laying a telegraph cable, a 1970s computer room, a cyber café, mobile money at a market, a smartphone crowd, an undersea cable coming ashore, a village digital centre, a satellite-connected school, and going online then versus now.

Wiring the World

1866

First Networks

1970s

Cyber Café

Late 1990s

Mobile Money

Kenya, 2007

Mobile Planet

2010s

Undersea Cables

500+ today

Village Online

Closing the divide

Connecting Everyone

Today

Then vs Now

Dial-up to video calls

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Jump to any other world history timeline on WorldTimelineHub.

Disclaimer: This content is AI-generated for educational purposes and may contain errors or outdated details. For correct and authoritative information, please refer to official and reliable sources such as government publications, manufacturers, museums, and academic references.

Global Internet Timeline: Wiring the World → Networks Cross Borders → The Web Goes Global → Digital Divide → Mobile Planet → Connecting Everyone

Why the Global Internet Matters

The global internet in one view

The Connected World Then vs Now

Wiring the World

Technology

Features

Networks Cross Borders

Technology

Features

The Web Goes Global

Technology

Features

Digital Divide & Global Debate

Technology

Features

Mobile Planet

Technology

Features

Connecting Everyone

Technology

Features

Global Internet Users Over Time

When Countries Joined the Network

Who Carries and Coordinates the Internet

India on the Global Internet

The Digital Divide and Society

Global Internet Timeline Summary

Test Your Knowledge

Students Tasks

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Moments Through Visual Stories

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