Samsung phones only from AT&TCell phone subscriptions to hit 5 billion globally
On a planet with around 6.8 billion people, we're likely to see 5 billion cell phone subscriptions this year.
Reaching 4.6 billion at the end of 2009, the number of cell phone subscriptions across the globe will hit 5 billion sometime in 2010, according to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). The explosion in cell phone use has been driven not only by developed countries, but by developing nations hungry for services like mobile banking and health care.
"Even during an economic crisis, we have seen no drop in the demand for communications services," said ITU Secretary-General Dr. Hamadoun Toure at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona this week, "and I am confident that we will continue to see a rapid uptake in mobile cellular services in particular in 2010, with many more people using their phones to access the Internet."
Along with the surge in cell phones, demand for mobile access to the Internet has skyrocketed. The ITU expects the number of mobile broadband subscriptions to surpass 1 billion around the world this year, a leap from 600 million at the end of 2009. The organization predicts that within the next five years, more people will hop onto the Web from laptops and mobile gadgets than from desktop computers.
People in developing countries are increasingly using their cell phones for mobile banking, even those who have no bank accounts. But it's in the area of health care that cell phones have made a difference in developing regions, believes the ITU.
"Even the simplest, low-end mobile phone can do so much to improve health care in the developing world," said Toure. "Good examples include sending reminder messages to patients' phones when they have a medical appointment, or need a prenatal check-up. Or using SMS messages to deliver instructions on when and how to take complex medication such as anti-retrovirals or vaccines. It's such a simple thing to do, and yet it saves millions of dollars--and can help improve and even save the lives of millions of people."
Lance Whitney wears a few different technology hats--journalist, Web developer, and software trainer. He's a contributing editor for Microsoft TechNet Magazine and writes for other computer publications and Web sites. You can follow Lance on Twitter at @lancewhit. Lance is a member of the CNET Blog Network, and he is not an employee of CNET. 
Russian has 207 mill phones for a population of 141.....These are not cooked up numbers....they have been cited.....
ref: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_number_of_mobile_phones_in_use
* There are only about 6 billion people alive in the world.
* Many people live in poverty and do not have a cell phone since they can't afford it.
* Many people are very young (e.g., babies) or very old and don't have a cell phone.
* Many people simply opt out of having a cell phone for personal reasons.
* While some people have a work and personal mobile phone, this is not the norm, and it would not make a huge dent in the stats. Most people only want to carry one device, so most businesses recognize this and support it to increase the usefulness of providing phones to employees (i.e., making sure it's on them at all times). At our company, almost everyone with a work phone uses it as their personal phone, too.
My understanding is that some countries we would consider poor have at least as high penetration of cell phones given the lack of any land-line infrastructure in these countries. They may not have your latest iPhone, but some of those phones we throw away are more than usable.
And you're right, many people living in poverty do not have access to a mobile phone. But consider that 80% of the world's population lives within range of a mobile signal, and that users in the Philippines send more texts than any other country, and it's not surprising that nearly the entire planet is connected to a mobile device in one way or another.
This makes no sense. Like most of the article.
When was the last time your doctor sent you a text to say "Hey, it's time to take your meds..."
- by Queen0521 July 23, 2010 8:44 AM PDT
- I think the stats are considering that they are family who has subscriptions for all their members and even in poor nations you can see a lot of people with that kind of device in their hands.
- Like this Reply to this comment
-
(18 Comments)