Well, as per GSMA, there are 4 Billion connections worldwide – and is expected to reach 6 billion connections by 2013 (source)
While this may not translate to total number of users (can’t say 58% of world population has a phone, consider world population ~6.7Bn).
In developed markets, 15-20% of phone connections are estimated to be due to one user having more than one device. And according to GSMA, around 100 million connections are “mobile broadband” connections.
Emerging markets are showing strong trends (read our coverage of Indian telecom industry), BoP market will truly ride the next wave of growth – the bigger question is whether BoP is a sustainable market, (given the falling ARPUs) or not.
What’s your opinion?
BoP = bottom of pyramid? Didn’t see it explained in the article.
I believe that these numbers include the numerous pre-paid connections which are just used & thrown away – esp in developed countries (e.g. by tourists). In Asia only, HK has a mobile penetration of over 150% while Singapore has over 130%. Prepaid connections in these countries don’t have as much loyalty as in countries like India & Indonesia, which suffer from very high pre-paid to post-paid ratio. Anyways, all such figures need to be taken with a pinch of salt.
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