61 percent of global population now using mobile phones

Davey Winder
Thursday, 25 September 2008 16:13

Your IT - Mobility

China does represent, without a shadow of a doubt, the largest mobile market in the world. But others are starting to make an impact as well.

India, for example, had hit 296 million mobile subscribers by the end of July this year. But that isn't as great as it first looks, as it represents just a 20 percent penetration rate.

That said, India has perhaps the greatest potential for growth thanks to the highly competitive market conditions that exist in the country.

The ITU points out that India’s mobile operators are competing for the low-income customers now, and the Average-Revenue-Per-User figure is now one of the lowest in the world at just USD $7.

A message that the ITU is keen to get across, however, is that all these figures have a real meaning, and mobile communications are changing the lives of real people.

So, in Africa and Asia for example, it says that quite apart from providing communication services to previously unconnected areas mobiles bring such things as m-commerce to access pricing information for rural farmers.

The positive impact of mobile phones can only continue to increase, as developing countries such as Indonesia, the Maldives, the Philippines and Sri Lanka within the Asia-Pacific region for example, launch 3G networks.

As the ITU says "broadband uptake enables a range of socially desirable and valuable online services, such as e-government, e-education and e-health. The use of broadband technologies can help overcome many of the basic development challenges faced by developing countries."

Perhaps we should gloss over the recent reports about people using their mobiles while going to the toilet and having sex then. Not to mention the chap charged USD $22,000 for watching four episodes of Friends on his mobile.

Although it is harder to ignore the much more serious problems of recycling mobile handsets when faced with such global growth, especially in developing countries where recycling is not a priority as of yet.