There are 5 billion people on Earth using some version of mobile broadband Internet.
Resolved true The record shows it happened or was so.
Factual: Statements about the present or the past, checked against the record: did they hold up?
What would count as true or false
The test is the latest estimate available around January 2026 of unique individuals using mobile internet (3G or better). Subscription or connection counts do not count, because the claim is about people. True: the estimate is roughly 4.5–5.5 billion. Mostly true: it is 4.0–4.5 billion or 5.5–6.0 billion. Mostly false: it is 3.5–4.0 billion, or the figure is valid only for subscriptions. False: it is below 3.5 billion or above 6.0 billion.
Set before the research began.
Evidence (3)
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E1 The Mobile Economy 2025 - gsma.com GSMA (citing GSMA Intelligence data) · 2025
“By the end of 2024, 58% of the world’s population used mobile internet, equating to 4.7 billion users”
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E2 The State of Mobile Internet Connectivity 2026 | GSMA Intelligence GSMA Intelligence · 15 September 2026
“By the end of 2025, the number of people using mobile internet increased to 4.8 billion people (59% of the global population).”
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E3 The Mobile Economy 2025 - gsma.com GSMA (citing GSMA Intelligence data) · 2025
“mobile internet penetration is projected to increase to 5.5 billion by 2030, encompassing 64% of the global population.”
Reasoning
GSMA's Mobile Economy 2025 report, the latest estimate available around January 2026, says 4.7 billion people (58% of the world's population) used mobile internet at the end of 2024 [E1]. GSMA Intelligence later put the figure at 4.8 billion people at the end of 2025 [E2]. Both are counts of people, not subscriptions, and both fall within the 4.5–5.5 billion range the criteria set for "true". GSMA's measure is mobile internet use in general, not specifically 3G or better, but it is the closest unique-user estimate in the evidence, and either figure supports "about 5 billion".
Cite this claim
Marc Andreessen, “There are 5 billion people on Earth using some version of mobile broadband Internet.” (said 7 January 2026). Verdict: resolved true. Reliability API, claim c_d5843ca43440, method 0.1.0+c876030c, dataset release v1.1.2. https://epistacklabs.com/claims/c_d5843ca43440
This claim is in dataset release v1.1.2, with the same verdict.
Reply to this claim
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