There are now over 5 billion global mobile subscribers and counting, according to GSMA Intelligence’s tally — a number that accounts for two-thirds of the world’s population.
The research arm of the international industry body calculates the figure using a daily updated “extensive database of mobile statistics and forecasts,” displaying the data on a continuously updated page.
While there are now over 5 billion global mobile subscribers, the aggregated data also reveals there are over 7.7 billion mobile connections total, which makes sense considering many subscribers have multiple connections for their devices. When counting in machine-to-machine connections, that number balloons to 8.1 billion.
The demographic of mobile subscribers hit the billion mark in 2003, doubled by 2007, reached 3 billion by 2010 and, only three years later, hit 4 billion in 2013. In comparison, it took four years for the market to hit five billion, signalling that the world is reaching a much higher level of overall wireless saturation.
GSMA Intelligence’s data puts worldwide penetration a 67 percent, while the North American market sits at 80 percent.
The research organization estimates there will be 5.7 billion unique mobile phone subscribers by 2020, with the Indian market accounting for 30 percent of that growth alone.
Image credit: Skitterphotos via Pexels
Source: GSMA Intelligence
Via: VentureBeat
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