Global Mobile Subscriber Base Passes the 5 Billion Mark

cellular-news [ ] 2010-07-04

Global Mobile Subscriber Base Passes the 5 Billion Mark

The number of mobile connections worldwide reached five billion in the first week of July, according to research from The Mobile World. Q1 2010 saw net additions of 168m, taking the total to 4.82 billion, and the Q2 gain is likely to have surpassed this figure, with China and India adding 50m in April and May alone. These two markets are the world's largest, and they accounted for almost 28% of the global total at the end of Q1, but their contribution to the net quarterly gain in connections was double this at 56%. In absolute terms, the two markets added 94m in the three months ending 31st March 2010. By contrast, the G7 nations accounted for just 4.6% of the Q1 gain. If we exclude the US, this figure falls to a mere 1.7%. The BRIC grouping (Brazil, Russia, India and China) made up 59.2% of the total net additions, and the so-called 'Next Eleven', which includes Indonesia, Vietnam, Mexico and Iran, contributed 20.1%. With the world population at around 6.8bn, the global mobile penetration rate stood at just under 71% at the end of Q1. The Q2 figure is likely to be around 73%, while the 100% level will be reached before the end of 2014.