Gadgets and just Gadgets

It’s official: exactly one half of the Earth’s population is taking it up the tailpipe from cellphone companies. 3.3 billion mobile phone lines are currently being used, which comes out to roughly one phone line per every other person on the planet. Considering that twenty years ago only 35 countries had any form of mobile network, it’s an amazing growth rate. Today every country on the globe has some form of mobile phone service, 194 nations each with its own networks. Forget the Internet, the mobile revolution is far more important.

Announcing this milestone with such remarkable precision are the industry analysts at Informa Telecoms and Media, who in their press release also provide a treasure trove of interesting facts and trivia regarding the mobile-phone revolution:

– In 1987, only 35 countries hosted mobile-phone networks, a figure that had risen to 192 a decade later and today stands at 224.

– Ten percent of the world’s population remains uncovered by a mobile network, while 40 percent are covered but remain unconnected, including my father, which should surprise no one given that he doesn’t even have an ATM card.

– That 3.3 billion figure does not mean that half the people on the planet are packing cell phones. The reason is that so many individuals have identified a need to have more than one account at a time: 59 countries tally more accounts than people, according to these analysts.

– On the other hand, 27 counties with networks have subscriber penetrations below 10 percent.

As for the figures only a carrier executive could love - Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) - the numbers are all over the map:

– On the high end, Kuwaiti operator Zain reports a monthly ARPU of $71, followed by Hutchison Whampoa’s UK operations at $70.55 and Q-Tel in Qatar with $69.

– On the lower side, there is Hutchison’s Sri Lankan operator at $2.83 and Bangladesh’s CityCell brand at $2.98.

Tags: cellphone, population, phone, account, phone line,