Mobile Users To Reach 4 Billion By End of Year
Monday, October 6th, 2008The International Telecommunications Union (ITU) estimates that there will be over four billion mobile subscribers worldwide by the end of the year.
Mobile telephone subscriptions have grown by around 24 percent per year between 2000 and 2008. According to the ITU, in 2000 12 percent of the world’s population had mobile (or ‘cell’) phones. At the start of this year, mobile penetration exceeded 50 percent, and is now expected to reach 61 percent by the end of the year.
Of course, ’subscriber’ does not necessarily equal ‘person’ so the ITU’s claims of global penetration may be somewhat exaggerated. Still, it’s impressive growth.
Source: Enid Burns, “Mobile Subscribers Increase Worldwide”, The ClickZ Network, October 2, 2008
