[...]... socially acceptable is important for maintaining human dignity in an ever deepening sea of digits 1.4 About this report This report, entitled digital.life, is the eighth in the series of ITU Internet Reports The reports series, which was launched in 1997, has been tracking the development of the internet worldwide This edition focuses on consumers and looks at how human lives are being shaped and re-shaped... or both directions 12 ITU Internet Report 2005: The Internet of Things, November 2005 (available at www .itu. int/internetofthings) 13 Mark Weiser, The Computer for the 21st Century, Scientific American, September 1991 14 ITU Information Society Statistics Database There were 2.17 billion mobile phone subscribers in January 2006 going.digital identity.digital 1 25 25 26 26 digital.life chapter two... services, at capacity equal to or greater than 256 kbit/s in one or both directions (see Technical notes) Source: ITU World Information Society Report (left chart) and ITU Information Society Statistics Database (right Source: ITU World Information Society Report 2006 (left chart) and ITU Information Society Statistics Database (right chart) and this was committed during the early part of the current... broadband IPv4: Internet protocol version 4 The version of IP in common use today IPv6: Internet protocol version 6 The emerging standard, which aims to rectify some of the problems seen with IPv4, in particular the shortage of address space IPTV: The generic term describes a system where a digital television service is delivered using the Internet Protocol over a network infrastructure ITU: International... “family” of mobile cellular standards approved by ITU For more information see the website at www .itu. int/imt Infotainment: The combination of information on current event and entertainment content or of their formats internet: Interconnected global networks that use the internet protocol (see IP) IP Telephony: internet protocol telephony IP telephony is used as a generic term for the conveyance of voice,... first internet cafes’ in the world to use HSDPA People renting time on the computers situated in the booth will be able to access the internet at speeds of up to 1.8 Mbit/s Another nine sites are connected to the internet via a GSM EDGE network, allowing download speeds at about 120 kbit/s The early rollout of high-speed internet services by South African mobile operators demonstrates that technologies,... such devices and tags become increasingly commonplace, a world of “ubiquitous computing” (as first described by Mark Weiser10) comes closer to realization, as does a global internet of things”, the subject of last year’s ITU Internet Report1 1 ... unless otherwise noted • Thousands are separated by an apostrophe (1’000) • 10 10 10 Billion is one thousand million • digital.life • Totals may not always add up due to rounding Additional definitions are provided in the technical notes of the Indicators Handbook at www .itu. int/ ITU- D/ict/handbook.html Note that data in some charts and tables referring to the same item may not be consistent and may... happen due to revisions to data that occurred after sections of the report were written, as well as different estimation techniques and/or exchange rates Such variations tend to be insignificant in their impact on the analysis and conclusions drawn in the report Finally, it should be noted that data generally refer to fiscal years as reported by countries Glossary network Also kbit/s: kilobits (1’000)... and Telecommunications Research Institute ETSI European Telecommunications Standards Institute EU European Union EV-DO Evolution data optimized FDD Frequency division duplex GHz Gigahertz GSM Global System for Mobile Communications HDTV High definition television ICT Information and communication technologies IEC International Electrotechnical Commission IEEE Institute of Electrical and Electronics . 1 identity .digital 1 December 2006 digital. life ITU Internet Report 2006 I n t e r n a t i o n a l T e l e c o m m u n i c a t i o n U n i o n 2 2 digital. life 2 ©. opinions of ITU or its membership. 3 identity .digital 3 Foreword This report, entitled “ digital. life ” is the eighth in the series of ITU Internet Reports”,