One Billion New Mobile Customers to Be Added Worldwide in the Next 3 Years

The global mobile market will go through unprecedented changes over the next few years, adding one billion new subscribers to the current 2.8 billion base over the next three years. But these next billion subscribers will come from very different markets, according to a new report by Pyramid Research. The report highlights several interesting conclusions:

• Fully 87% of the next billion mobile subscribers will come from emerging economies
• India, not China, will add the most new subscribers
• While India and China are the largest markets in terms of growth, they represent only 35% of the next billion mobile users
• Of the 30 fastest-growing markets, 10 are in Africa and the Middle East, and eight are in emerging Asia
• Of the next billion subscribers, 71% will come from parts of the world with urbanization levels below 50%.

Clearly, any vendor, carrier or investor with global ambitions needs to understand the differences among these markets.

Pyramid Research says some important factors to consider:

• By 2010, 74% of mobile subscribers will live in emerging economies, and while they will only contribute 40% of global revenue (due to lower average revenue per user), they are among the most profitable given the lower cost of serving them
• There are tremendous difference among and within these emerging markets in terms of end-user preferences
• The mobile networks will be the access points to broadband services in many of these markets.

Posted to the site on 30th October 2007

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