4B mobile phone users by end 2008--UN agency
By Veronica Uy
INQUIRER.net
First Posted 19:16:00 09/26/2008
Filed Under: mobile phones, Poverty, Telecommunications Equipment
MANILA, Philippines—Mobile phone subscribers worldwide will hit the four billion mark by the end of 2008, the head of the United Nations International telecommunications Union (ITU) said Friday.
Most of the increase in cell phone usage will be from the rapidly developing economies of Brazil, Russia, India, and China, which altogether account for over 1.3 billion mobile phone subscribers by year-end, it said.
In its daily news digest, the ITU said the number of subscribers has surged nearly 25 percent annually for the past eight years. In 2000, mobile penetration stood at only 12 percent, growing to reach over 60 percent by the end of 2008.
At a high-level event on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in New York, ITU Secretary-General Hamadoun Touré said information and communication technology (ICT) can serve as catalyst to achieve the 2015 MDG targets.
The MDGs are eight anti-poverty targets agreed upon by world leaders in 2000. They aim to spur development by improving social and economic conditions in the world's poorest countries.
Touré said this big number of cell phone users "indicates that it is technically feasible to connect the world to the benefits of ICT and that it is a visible business opportunity."
But the ITU emphasized the need to carefully interpret data. It said a 61 percent penetration rate does not mean every other person in the world is using a mobile phone as the statistics reflect the number of subscriptions, not people.
"Double counting could occur if people have multiple cellular subscriptions, while some could be sharing their phone with others," it said.
The agency also cautioned that penetration rates vary by region and even within countries.
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