April 21, 2005
Myanmar. The lowest cell phone penetration rate
Some interesting figures and facts from The Sydney Morning Herald' article entitled "Mobile rings changes for world's poor".
-- "The biggest growth in mobile telephones is now expected to come from developing countries such as Indonesia and India, analysts say, as telecoms companies switch strategies away from saturated developed markets such as Europe, the US and Japan to largely untapped poorer nations.
-- Europe is almost at 100 per cent capacity, while South Africa is around 7 per cent," says Andrew Chetham, principal analyst for Gartner Inc. in Hong Kong.
-- Companies are now getting better at making money from the lower end, with cheaper handsets, especially in the Philippines," says Chetham, who says handsets are generally priced between $US200 and $US300.
-- But not everyone will be joining the revolution anytime soon. Myanmar (Southeastern Asia between Bangladesh and Thailand) is one of the few countries where mobile phones have yet to permeate widely - strictly controlled by the military government, they remain the exclusive preserve of the wealthy and well-connected. There are fewer than 200,000 cell phones in use in a country of 42 million people.
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