Penetration rate 2009

PLOS Genetics 12 7 : e Pollen tubes extend through pistil tissues and are guided to ovules where they release sperm for fertilization. Although pollen tubes can germinate and elongate in a synthetic medium, their trajectory is random and their growth rates are slower compared to growth in pistil tissues. Furthermore, interaction with the pistil renders pollen tubes competent to respond to guidance cues secreted by specialized cells within the ovule. The molecular basis for this potentiation of the pollen tube by the pistil remains uncharacterized.

Mobile Internet growth is the growth of the Internet when accessed via a mobile phone , laptop , etc. At one time, half the world had mobile phones. In reality many people have more than one subscription. By even the number of unique users of mobile phones had reached half the planet, when the ITU reported that the subscriber number was to reach 4. The Mobile Internet data connections are following the growth of mobile phone connections albeit at a lower rate. According to the BBC, there are now over 5 billion mobile phone users in the world. Many users in Europe and the United States are already users of the fixed internet when they first try the same experience on a mobile phone.

Mobile subscriptions in Africa rose from 54m to almost m between and , the quickest growth in the world. On average there are now 60 mobile subscriptions for every people in the world. In developing countries, the figure stands at 48 — more than eight times the level of penetration in In Africa, average penetration stands at more than a third of the population, and in north Africa it is almost two-thirds. Only five African countries — Burundi, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia and Somalia — still have a penetration of less than 10 per inhabitants.

This brief paper uses a simple arithmetic framework to classify and explain the performance of developing countries in closing the absolute digital divide. Four categories are created on the basis of two variables, namely, the penetration and rate of growth of mobile phones. The paper answers questions such as: Which countries do well and badly on both variables? Are the countries in these categories drawn from specific regions or similar income levels or is the distribution more random? How can similar countries from the same region appear in two diametrically opposite categories?