Fixed broadband subscriptions per 100 people, from the ITU and World Bank. Fixed broadband underpins clinic-grade telehealth and hospital systems, and remains far less evenly distributed than mobile.
Fixed broadband is the connection most clinics, hospitals, and households rely on for sustained, high-quality video consultations, large imaging transfers, and always-on electronic record systems. It is more capital-intensive than mobile and, as a result, more unevenly distributed. This indicator reports fixed broadband subscriptions per 100 people, compiled by Our World in Data from ITU and World Bank data.
How to read it
Compare the trajectories of a high-income and a lower-income country to see the structural gap. Where fixed broadband is sparse, telehealth tends to depend on mobile data, which shapes what kinds of services (asynchronous messaging rather than high-resolution video) are realistic.
What it shows
Fixed broadband penetration is far lower than mobile penetration everywhere, and the spread between countries is wide: leading economies report roughly 35 to 50 subscriptions per 100 people, while many low-income countries remain in low single digits, some close to zero. This gap is one reason mobile networks, not fixed lines, carry most digital health traffic outside high-income settings.
Caveats
A subscription is typically a household or organisational account, so per-person figures understate the number of people served by each line. The measure does not capture connection speed or reliability, both of which determine whether a link can sustain clinical video.