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UN: Six billion mobile phone subscriptions in the world | UN: Six billion mobile phone subscriptions in the world |
(about 4 hours later) | |
There are almost as many mobile phone subscriptions in the world as people, a United Nations telecom agency has said. | |
A report by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) said there were about six billion subscriptions at the end of 2011. | |
There are nearly seven billion people on Earth. | |
Almost one billion subscriptions were in China, the study found. | Almost one billion subscriptions were in China, the study found. |
The report, called Measuring the Information Society 2012, looked at 155 countries, assessing their access to and use of information and communication technology (ICT). | |
The head of the agency's data division, Susan Teltscher, said: "We count Sim cards, not the number of devices or people, so if one person has two Sim cards in one device, it counts as two subscriptions; and we count monthly subscriptions as well." | |
Sim cards used in a tablet or to access the internet on a laptop computer had not been taken into account, she added. | |
The Geneva-based agency also said almost two billion people - about one-third of the world's population - had been internet users by the end of 2011. | |
In developed countries, 70% of the population was online, compared with 24% in developing regions, it said. | |
There were almost twice as many mobile broadband subscriptions globally as fixed broadband ones, said the agency. | There were almost twice as many mobile broadband subscriptions globally as fixed broadband ones, said the agency. |
The director of ITU's Telecommunication Development Bureau, Brahima Sanou, said: "The surge in numbers of mobile-broadband subscriptions in developing countries has brought the internet to a multitude of new users. | |
"But despite the downward trend, prices remain relatively high in many low-income countries. | "But despite the downward trend, prices remain relatively high in many low-income countries. |
"For mobile broadband to replicate the mobile-cellular miracle and bring more people from developing countries online, 3G network coverage has to be extended and prices have to go down even further." | "For mobile broadband to replicate the mobile-cellular miracle and bring more people from developing countries online, 3G network coverage has to be extended and prices have to go down even further." |
On 14 October, leading names in the ICT industry will gather at ITU Telecom World 2012 - a global networking and knowledge-sharing event in Dubai. | |
Some 300 global leaders are expected to attend the conference, including heads of state, ministers, regulators, academics, and representatives of such companies as Cisco, Kaspersky Lab, Huawei, Verizon, Qualcomm, Ericsson. |
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