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40 Million New Mobile Phone Users Per Month |
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Written by Adam Gosling
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Monday, 11 September 2006 |
There are now more than 2.5 billion cellular connections
around the world according to the GSM Association. New mobile phones are now
being connected at the astonishing rate of 40 million per month.
As the number approaches nearly one connection for every
person on the planet, the new milestone came just 12 months after reaching 2
billion connections.
The estimates demonstrate how quickly mobile phone
technology is becoming pervasive. It took 20 years to reach 1 billion
connection and then just three years to reach 2 billion, according to Martin
Garner, Director of Wireless Intelligence (a joint venture between Ovum and the
GSM Association).
"Worldwide growth is currently running at over 40 million
new connections per month - the highest volume of growth the market has ever
seen."
Over the four quarters to the end of September 2006, world
total net additions were 484 million.
Most of the growth is coming from cellular markets with
lower levels of market penetration.
The Asia Pacific accounted for a stunning 41 per cent of the
growth. Eastern Europe and Latin America together accounted for 30 per cent,
while Africa was 10 per cent.
The relatively mature markets of Western Europe, North
America and the Middle East took the remaining
20 per cent in more or less equal measure.
Garner said these fast growing market often referred to as
"emerging markets" are quickly reaching the same penetration levels as more established
market.
The top ten countries for volume of new connections over the
last year were China, India, Russia,
USA, Pakistan, Ukraine,
Brazil, Indonesia, Nigeria
and Bangladesh. Between them, they account for over half of
the growth in the world cellular market over the last 12 months.
A quarter of the growth is coming from China and India. China's market is still expanding
at more than 5 million new connections per month. India
has moved rapidly up the top ten list, with the rate of new connections
quadrupling over the last 18 months to reach a level very close to China's.
According to Wireless Intelligence forecasts the next half
billion new connections will take a little longer to be added - 16 months -
meaning that the market is on track to reach 3 billion connections around the
end of 2007.
For a graph of the number of cellular connections worldwide
from 2004 to 2007, click here https://www.wirelessintelligence.com/images/worldcell.jpg
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