Communications Equipment Data Providers · Head-to-head
ITU World Telecommunication/ICT Indicators Database - Global & Regional Time Series (2005-2025) vs World Bank - Fixed Telephone Subscriptions per 100 People IT.MLT.MAIN.P2
Which communications equipment data providers data fits your job: ITU World Telecommunication/ICT Indicators Database - Global & Regional Time Series, or World Bank - Fixed Telephone Subscriptions per 100 People IT.MLT.MAIN.P2. API, files, or your warehouse. Daily, weekly, or hourly.
ITU World Telecommunication/ICT Indicators Database - Global & Regional Time Series (2005-2025)
World Bank - Fixed Telephone Subscriptions per 100 People IT.MLT.MAIN.P2
Coverage, side by side
| ITU World Telecommunication/ICT Indicators Database - Global & Regional Time Series | World Bank - Fixed Telephone Subscriptions per 100 People IT.MLT.MAIN.P2 | |
|---|---|---|
| Geographic | `Region/Group`: World, World Bank income groups, LDC/LLDC/SIDS, six ITU BDT regions | `country.id`, `country.value` and `countryiso3code` for 217+ member economies plus aggregates |
What each contains
Pick by fit, not by loyalty.
| ITU World Telecommunication/ICT Indicators Database - Global & Regional Time Series | World Bank - Fixed Telephone Subscriptions per 100 People IT.MLT.MAIN.P2 | |
|---|---|---|
| Observed value | Year columns (2005-2025) under a per-block Unit column (Millions, Per 100 inhabitants, Percentage) | `value`, a single numeric column, null where unobserved |
| Period stamp | One column per year, 2005 through 2025 | `date`, an observation year string, 1960-2025 |
| Geography key | `Region/Group`: World, World Bank income groups, LDC/LLDC/SIDS, six ITU BDT regions | `country.id`, `country.value` and `countryiso3code` for 217+ member economies plus aggregates |
| Indicator identity | `Indicator` name column spanning roughly 15 ICT families | `indicator.id` constant IT.MLT.MAIN.P2 plus `indicator.value` name |
| Units declaration | Explicit `Unit` column varying by block | Implicit in the series definition; the `unit` field ships empty |
| Population splits | Dedicated urban-rural sheet and gender sheet for penetration rates | None carried |
| Record hygiene | 'N/A' markers where a value is unavailable | `obs_status` flag and `decimal` scaling field on every row |
What each does better
ITU World Telecommunication/ICT Indicators Database - Global & Regional Time Series
Breadth nobody else packs into one grid. Around 15 indicator families ride together - fixed-telephone and mobile-cellular subscriptions in millions and per 100 inhabitants, fixed and mobile broadband subscriptions and traffic, population covered by mobile-cellular and mobile-broadband networks, individuals using the Internet broken out by sex, age and urban or rural area, and mobile-phone ownership by sex. The World Bank record holds exactly one of those families.
The wireline decline, quantified globally. World fixed-telephone subscriptions ran 1,243.2 million in 2005 and fell to 10.2 per 100 inhabitants by the end of the series, even as mobile-cellular climbed from 2,205.3 million to 111.5 per 100. For any communications-equipment question about the shrinking installed base that central-office and PBX gear serves, the aggregate arc is laid out in one place.
Internet-use context around the hardware. Roughly 6 billion people - 74 percent of world population - were online in 2025 against 60 percent in 2020, leaving about 2.2 billion offline. Equipment demand models built only on line counts miss that demand-side half; see ITU ICT indicators.
Deep background when you need it. A separate historical archive reaches back to 1849-1967, beyond anything in the modern series.
World Bank - Fixed Telephone Subscriptions per 100 People IT.MLT.MAIN.P2
Country resolution the aggregate series cannot give you. More than 217 World Bank member economies plus regional and income aggregates, each keyed with two-character and ISO3 codes. The ITU grid stops at World, income groups, LDC/LLDC/SIDS compositions and six ITU regions - it never names a country. Any benchmarking deck that ranks markets needs the economy-level cut.
Twenty extra years of history on the shared quantity. The series runs 1960 to 2025, sparse before the ITU collection begins, against the aggregate grid's 2005 start. Watching the United States slide from 26.63 subscriptions per 100 people in 2022 to 24.70 in 2023 and 23.61 in 2024 is a three-point read on the installed base; stretching the same series back decades shows the whole rise and fall of the landline.
A tidy schema built for joins. One record per country-year, about 17,490 rows at full history, ten typed fields including observation-status flags and decimal scaling - load it and pivot without reshaping a wide grid.
The verdict
Verdict: sample both, pick by fit. Let the unit of analysis decide.
Choose the ITU World Telecommunication/ICT Indicators Database - Global & Regional Time Series (2005-2025) if your question is about the whole ICT complex at market level: sizing regional equipment demand, framing the fixed-to-mobile substitution arc, reading broadband traffic and network coverage alongside line counts, or setting an internet-penetration backdrop for a product thesis. Six fields, fifteen-plus families, one consistent grid.
Choose the World Bank - Fixed Telephone Subscriptions per 100 People IT.MLT.MAIN.P2 if your question names economies: ranking countries on landline density, tracking a national installed base for replacement-cycle planning, or feeding a country-year panel where the join keys arrive ready-made.
Sample both, pick by fit. See ITU World Telecommunication/ICT Indicators Database - Global & Regional Time Series · See World Bank - Fixed Telephone Subscriptions per 100 People IT.MLT.MAIN.P2
Fair questions
Is ITU World Telecommunication/ICT Indicators Database - Global & Regional Time Series (2005-2025) better than World Bank - Fixed Telephone Subscriptions per 100 People IT.MLT.MAIN.P2?
They answer different questions, tied at 9/10 apiece. The ITU series wins whenever the question spans the whole ICT complex at market level - subscriptions, broadband, network coverage and internet use across world, income-group and regional aggregates. The World Bank series wins whenever the question names economies, delivering one landline-density number per country-year for 217+ places back to 1960.
Do the two datasets measure the same thing?
On one quantity, exactly. Outside that shared series the ITU record ranges far wider, adding broadband, mobile coverage and internet-use families the World Bank cut does not carry.
Which dataset covers more geography?
It depends what counts as geography. The World Bank series resolves more than 217 individual member economies with ISO codes, which is what most benchmarking work needs. The ITU grid never names a country - it aggregates at World, income-group, LDC/LLDC/SIDS and six-region level, with urban-rural and sex splits the World Bank cut lacks entirely.
Which dataset goes back further in time?
On the shared landline quantity, the World Bank series runs from 1960 to 2025 against the ITU aggregate grid's 2005 start. But the ITU estate also maintains a separate historical archive reaching back to 1849-1967, so for very long-run telecom history the ITU side can reach furthest once that archive enters scope.
Can Datadory deliver both datasets together?
Yes. Either record arrives alone or merged onto one calendar, aligned on period and per-100-inhabitants units with ITU regions mapped to their World Bank aggregate counterparts - delivered daily, weekly, or hourly, your call. Name the economies, indicator families and years when you request the sample and it lands pre-cut, with field definitions and coverage profiles attached.