March 2, 2009
Mobile Phone Growth Worldwide
Two thirds of the world's cell phone subscriptions are in developing nations, with the highest growth rate in Africa where a quarter of the population now has a mobile, a United Nations agency said on Friday. Reuters reports.
While just 1 in 50 Africans had a mobile in the year 2000, now 28 percent have a cellular subscription, according to the International Telecommunications Union (ITU).
The world has more than three times more mobile cellular subscriptions than fixed telephone lines, and in some countries in Asia and Europe people have more than one contract each, pushing the mobile access rate above 100 percent.
Following is a 2007 ranking of the top 10 and bottom 10 countries on that index of 154 countries. The full ICT Development Index is available on: www.itu.int
ICT DEVELOPMENT INDEX 2007 RANKING (2002 RANKING):
1 - SWEDEN (1)
2 - SOUTH KOREA (3)
3 - DENMARK (4)
4 - NETHERLANDS (6)
5 - ICELAND (2)
6 - NORWAY (5)
7 - LUXEMBOURG (21)
8 - SWITZERLAND (7)
9 - FINLAND (8)
10 - UNITED KINGDOM (10)
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