Media > Mobile phones: Countries Compared

Mobile phones are becoming the most important communication tool in the world. There are now more mobile phones than computers, and the number is expected to reach 2 billion world wide by the year 2006. The number of mobile phones in the developed world is increasing, with many countries expected to surpass the 100 percent penetration rate. This is because some people will have more than one mobile phone - one for work and one for home, or perhaps a mobile and a mobile data card to connect their computer to the Internet.
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The bottom of the list is dominated by tiny nations in the Pacific Ocean and Caribbean Sea, and many countries in Africa. Although developing countries are at the bottom of the list, they are also seeing an increase in mobile phone usage. A recent study commissioned by Vodafone (<a href="http://www.vodafone.com/assets/files/en/AIMP_09032005.pdf">PDF</a>) indicates that mobile phone use in Africa is growing faster than anywhere else in the World, and that 97% of people surveyed in Tanzania said they could access a mobile phone, while just 28% could access a land line phone. Asian countries have the highest mobile phone penetration of developing nations, helped by their proximity to Japan and South Korea and the fact that many mobile factories are located there. The telecommunications companies prefer mobile technology because there is less infrastructure to install, so in many cases citizens can afford mobiles when they can't afford (or get) land lines. <a href="http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/Vodafone">Vodafone</a> has also indicated it intends to drop mobile phone call rates to compete with landline businesses in a number of countries.

<small>Staff response to <b>Ndatega</b>, comment posted on <b>2011-04-05 13:32:02</b></small><br/>
There's some developing countries on the list but we hope to be updating the whole indicator soon.

Why cant we get stats per state? This would be nice..