Mobile Subscriber Growth to Flatten in Coming Years
Despite the phenomenal growth in mobile usage, there were over four billion people without a mobile phone by year-end 2007, says a research report from Telecom Trends International. According to the report, the number of mobile subscriptions has gone well over three billion, but the number of users is 2.6 billion, a significant difference.
The number of subscriptions does not translate into number of users because many users have multiple devices or use multiple SIM cards, said Naqi Jaffery, President and Chief Analyst, Telecom Trends International, Inc. The number of subscriptions is growing faster than the number of users, he said.
Despite the potential for growth, the growth rate will flatten during the forecast period because of the lack of affordability by large chunks of population, Mr. Jaffery said. To make mobile presence more widespread, international organizations and national governments will need to subsidize mobile phone service for the less fortunate population segments, he said.
Global mobile subscriptions will reach five billion by 2014, but the number of users will be 4.1 billion by 2014, according to the report. Over the next seven years, the number of subscriptions worldwide will close to 70 percent of the population, but the number of users will be less than 60 percent.
Posted to the site on 5th February 2008
