Moscow: The number of Internet users in Russia increased by 5.4 per cent in 2011 to reach 70 million people, Russian Minister of Communications Igor Shchegolev said today.
According to him, 55 million of the 70 million are active users. He further said the figure may reach 90 million users in 2013.
"The pace has slowed down slightly since 2010 but the audience keeps expanding," Shchegolev said.
In 2011, Russia outdid Germany in "digital race" and was Europe's leader by the number of Internet users in Europe.
In September, Russia had 50.8 million Internet users who are older than 15 compared to 50.1 million people in Germany. Russia has been recognized to have the world's highest growth rate of Internet users.
"In the outgoing year Russia was in the list of top ten countries with the fastest rate of development of broadband Internet access," Shchegolev said.
He said the figure stood at 40 lines per 100 people in 2011 and was expected to increase to 60 lines per 100 people by 2015.
"The majority of our population would like to have a good-quality broadband Internet access because it realizes the obvious advantages of such communications.
Broadband Internet access offers an opportunity to get the most advanced information and communications services. However, satellite
Internet services are also growing fast," he said.
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