Global Overview Q3 2006 - Mobile World Briefing

World mobile customers grew in number by 5.29% in the third quarter of 2006, down both on the 5.49% growth registered in the second quarter, and on the 5.83% uplift recorded in the third quarter of 2005. In absolute terms, however, the global market enjoyed its second best quarter ever - second only to the fourth quarter of 2005 - with 128.01m net additions in Q3 2006, compared to 126.01m for Q2 2006.

More significantly, the third quarter net additions figure for 2006 represents a 13.7% improvement over that for 2005, and this takes annual net additions for the year to 30th September 2006 over 500m for the first time. Worldwide mobile penetration at the end of September 2006 reached 38.9%, up from just over 37% at the end of June and 31.5% at the end of September 2005.

In the Russia & Central Asia region (RCA), growth fell slightly quarter on quarter to 5.5%, just ahead of the global average. Net additions amounted to 8.6m in the quarter, and 40.7m in the year, equivalent to 7% and 8% of the global totals for the two periods, respectively. Thus, the region continues to punch above its weight both in terms of population and existing mobile customers, which, at the end of September, accounted for just 4% and 6% of the global totals, respectively. The total customer base in the RCA region rose to 163.7m at the end of Q3 2006, from 123.0m at the end of Q3 2005, elevating the overall penetration rate by 16pp from 49.5% to 65.5% over the 12 month period.

In North America just 4.99m new customers adopted mobile services in the third quarter, after a dramatic decrease in net additions from the most recently revised figure of 8.36m for the second quarter. Penetration for the region as a whole moved up by 1.4pp in the quarter to 73.6%, with mobile ownership in the United States exceeding 75% in the period.

Just 5% of the world's population resides in North America, although it is home to 9.6% of the world's 2.548m mobile customers, down from 10.6% a year ago. It is not surprising, therefore, that the continent's contribution to global growth fell to 4% and 6% for the three and twelve month periods ending 30th September 2006, respectively.

This article was extracted from The Mobile World Briefing, the weekly newsletter from The Mobile World. To download a sample issue of the Briefing in PDF format, please click here. For more information including full subscription pricing, please visit The Mobile World"

Posted to the site on 14th December 2006