Worldwide Mobile Subscriptions Skyrockets to over 7 Billion

For the first time ever, the number of mobile subscriptions is over 7 billion in the world according to recent research.

There is new research done by telecommunications research firm TeleGeography that shows that over 7 billion people have now registered their mobile phones. The predictions they made state that there will be more mobile subscriptions than people in the world when 2015 comes to an end. Regional differences, however, in wireless use and subscriber structures leaves decent room for growth in certain areas according to TeleGeography.

Asia is said to have mobile subscriptions of 3.7 billion. There have been 194 million extra subscribers in Asia between the beginning of 2014 and the beginning of 2015. This is therefore 60% of new worldwide wireless subscribers. There are over 270 million people in Asia without a cell phone. This shows that the number of people with mobile phones in Asia is not spread out.

Africa has 912 million subscribers with 2G being the number one technology. Over 75% of the 912 million registrations prove that 2G is still dominant in Africa. The continent has 81% Wireless use which is low compared to any other region and leaves room for growth. 3G, however, is becoming more popular and more accessible while LTE is barely around in Africa. The percentage of LTE use in Africa is less than half of 1% of mobile subscribers making use of technology in the beginning of 2015.

Europe has the highest wireless use out of all regions as it has a massive 138% usage rate even though mobile subscriptions dropped by 6 million in the past year due to certain factors. Although the number of mobile subscriptions has increased drastically, global growth is not as big as it was. Markets such as Europe where there is a high wireless penetration rate are now turning their focus towards other goals such as stabilising the average revenue per user through the conversion of customers to 3G and 4G use. They are also looking at low cost network operators and achieving growth via unifications and acquisitions.