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International Telecommunication Union: worldwide mobile subscriptions hit six billion in 2011
Last year, the UN's International Telecommunication Union (ITU) told us there were five billion mobile subscriptions worldwide at the close of 2010, and now it's reporting that at the end of 2011, that figure hit a staggering six billion. China and India account for one billion a piece, and it brings us ever closer to having the equivalent of one subscription for every person on the planet. (According to the CTIA, there are already more cellular plans in the US -- around 322 million -- than there are inhabitants.) In a stat-heavy release from the ITU, it also ranked the most advanced telecoms countries, with South Korea placing first, Japan eighth and countries in Europe filling the remaining spots. Interestingly, the number of global mobile broadband subscriptions now outnumbers fixed ones by two to one, and mobile internet services showed the biggest growth rates in 2011: 40% worldwide and 78% in developing markets. The ITU attributes the latter figure to the relatively high price of fixed access in these countries, and the increasing availability of mobile alternatives. The CTIA also commented on mobile broadband use, reporting that from July 2011 to June this year, Americans consumed 104 percent more data -- no doubt due, in part, to people taking advantage of expanding 4G coverage. As usual, we've given you the cheat sheet, so if you'd like the full reports and have got a thing for statistics, there's plenty more in the source links below. [Image credit: Chris Jordan]
UN: worldwide internet users hit two billion, cellphone subscriptions top five billion
The UN's International Telecommunication Union predicted last fall that the number of internet users worldwide would hit two billion by the end of 2010, and it's now issued its full report that confirms just that -- 2.08 billion, to be specific. As the ITU's Hamadoun Toure notes, that number represents a huge leap from the mere 250 million internet users that existed a decade ago, and it means that roughly one third of the world's population now has internet access of some sort -- of those, 555 million have a fixed broadband subscription, and 950 million have mobile broadband. Just as impressive as that (if not moreso), are the number of cellphone subscriptions worldwide, which has now crossed the five billion mark. That's up from 500 million at the beginning of the year 2000, although the agency notes that it's only accounted for "subscriptions," and not individual users. Any way you slice it, however, that's quite a record of growth for the first decade of the 21st century.
