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World mobile use set to pass three billion
Demand booms in China, India and Africa

By Reuters

Published: Thursday 28 June 2007

By the end of July global mobile phone use will for the first time pass the three billion mark - equivalent to half the world's population - as mobile phone demand booms in China, India and Africa, a survey said on Wednesday.

From African farmers to Chinese factory workers, mobile operators will have notched up more than 3.25 billion mobile phone subscriptions worldwide by the end of the year, according to a report by UK-based telecommunications analysis company The Mobile World.

More than 1,000 new customers are effectively signing up for mobile phones every minute around the world, the survey showed.

The Mobile World co-founder John Tysoe said: "It took over 20 years to connect the first billion subscribers but only 40 months to connect the second billion. The three billion milestone will be passed in July 2007, just two years on."

Analysts have forecast that 65 per cent of all handsets made this year will be sold in emerging markets as manufacturers, such as Nokia of Finland and Motorola of the United States, push out low-cost phones and mobile phone operators cut call charges.

The figures cited in the survey take account of multiple mobile subscriptions by customers. Penetration in Europe has topped 100 per cent of the population, with 666 million mobile connections.

A record 240 million handsets were sold and 135 million new customers signed up to mobile phone networks in the quarter to the end of March, the report said.