The Country Similarity Index attempts to quantify how similar countries are to each other relative to other countries. The index is a statistically-based way to measure this. 20% of the index is based on technology. 10% of a country’s technology score (2% of the overall Country Similarity Index score) is allocated for the country’s communications infrastructure. The following are the statistics that were included in the calculation:
Internet Access
It is no surprise that the countries with the highest percentage of internet users are generally the wealthiest countries. Over 99% of Bahrain’s population uses the internet. Sub-Saharan African countries generally have the lowest percentage of internet users. Somalia and Eritrea have especially few with around 2% of the people in their countries using it. There is a huge contrast between North Korea and South Korea in this respect, since few North Koreans use it, while over 95% of South Koreans do.
The International Telecommunication Union is the main source of the data:
https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/IT.NET.USER.ZS?view=chart
Internet Speed
The average internet speed in a country correlates with how wealthy a country is. South Korea has the fastest internet, but Japan, United States, Canada, and Europe, also have the fast internet speeds. In contrast, many poorer countries, especially in Africa, have slow internet. Mali may have the slowest average internet in the world with an average of only 0.5 megabytes per second.
The Telegraph is the main source of the data:
https://telegraphtravelmaps.carto.com/viz/b0a43e76-40bf-11e5-bfd4-0e6e1df11cbf/public_map
Countries were grouped into the following categories by megabytes per second:
0-2.5, 2.5-5, 5-10, 10-17.5, 17.5-25
Cell Phone Subscriptions per Capita
In general, there is not a huge correlation between the number of cell phone subscriptions per capita and a certain region, except that the poorest countries have few. However, the wealthiest countries do not necessarily have the most. Russia, Thailand, South Africa, and Costa Rica are some of the countries with the most per capita.
The International Telecommunication Union is the primary source of the data:
https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/mobile-cellular-subscriptions-per-100-people
Countries were grouped into the following categories by number of cell phone subscriptions per capita:
0-40, 40-80, 80-120, 120-160, 160-200
Percentage of Households with Televisions
The countries with the lowest percentage of televisions in households are poorer countries. In fact, in more than 10 countries, less than 10 percent have television. The vast majority of these are in Africa, but Myanmar also has an extremely low percentage. In stark contrast, more than 90 percent of households in European countries have television. Wealthier countries tend to have them more often.
The Nation Master is the source of the data:
https://www.nationmaster.com/country-info/stats/Media/Households-with-television
Countries categorized into the percentage of households with a television:
0-20, 20-40, 40-60, 60-80, 80-100
TV Broadcast Standard
There are four main digital broadcast standards in use today. The vast majority of countries in the Eastern Hemisphere use DVB-T. However, Cuba, Pakistan, and a few other Asian countries use DTMB, which was developed in China. ISDB-T is most common in Latin America, but it is also used in Japan, where it was invented. ATSC was created by the United States, but it is also used by South Korea, Mexico, and a few other countries. However, not all countries have made the transition to digital television and still use analog formats. Somalia, Yemen, North Korea, and Turkmenistan are some examples.
Wikipedia is the main source of the information:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_terrestrial_television#/media/File:Digital_terrestrial_television_standards.svg
TV Broadcast Standards include the following types:
DVB-T, ISDB-T, ATSC, DTMB, PAL, SECAM, NTSC
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