{"id":44111,"date":"2013-08-15T23:31:41","date_gmt":"2013-08-15T21:31:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=44111"},"modified":"2013-08-16T09:20:09","modified_gmt":"2013-08-16T07:20:09","slug":"global-mobile-penetration-rates-revealed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/mobile\/44111\/global-mobile-penetration-rates-revealed\/","title":{"rendered":"Global mobile penetration rates revealed"},"content":{"rendered":"

With global mobile connections expected to hit 9.7 billion by the end of 2017, data from the World Bank shows which regions and countries are currently leading the way.<\/p>\n

According to a recent report by the GSM Association (GSMA<\/a>), global mobile penetration in terms of connections is fast-approaching 100%, and is expected to blast past the world population by the end of 2013.<\/p>\n

The GSMA makes a distinction between mobile \u201cconnections\u201d (number of SIM cards on a network) and mobile \u201csubscriptions\u201d (number of individual people on a network).<\/p>\n

In its Mobile Economy 2013 report, the GSMA indicated that global connections are expected to reach 7.4 billion by the end of 2013, hitting 9.7 billion by the end of 2017.<\/p>\n

The GSMA says that in Q4 2012, South Africa\u2019s mobile penetration stood at 138% in terms of connections. In terms of subscriptions, however, the figure is significantly smaller at 66% of the population.<\/p>\n

According to the World Bank<\/a>, mobile cellular subscriptions are subscriptions to a public mobile telephone service using cellular technology, which provide access to the public switched telephone network. Post-paid and prepaid subscriptions are included.<\/p>\n

For the data presented below, we have used the GSMA’s distinction between connections and subscriptions.<\/p>\n

\"Mobile<\/a>

Mobile subscription map [World Bank]<\/p><\/div>\n

Leading the way<\/h3>\n

According to the World Bank, the Macao region of China has the highest penetration of mobile connections in the world, with 284 subscriptions per 100 people.<\/p>\n

Hong Kong, also in China, is has the second highest penetration with 228 connections per 100 people.<\/p>\n

When looking at mobile connections, globally, it comes as no surprise that Asia dominates the networks.<\/p>\n

With a population exceeding 4.1 billion out of the global population of over seven billion people, Asia has by far the largest base of mobile users.<\/p>\n

China in particular is home to the largest mobile operators in the world, with China Mobile<\/a>, China Unicom<\/a> and China Telecom<\/a> covering well over 1.14 billion subscribers combined.<\/p>\n

Top 10 countries by mobile cellular connections<\/h3>\n
\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
#<\/strong><\/td>\nCountry\/State<\/strong><\/td>\nConnections per 100 people (2012)
\n<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
1<\/td>\nMacao SAR, China<\/td>\n284<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2<\/td>\nHong Kong SAR, China<\/td>\n228<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
3<\/td>\nAntigua and Barbuda<\/td>\n199<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
4<\/td>\nKuwait<\/td>\n191<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
5<\/td>\nGabon<\/td>\n187<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
6<\/td>\nPanama<\/td>\n187<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
7<\/td>\nSuadi Arabia<\/td>\n185<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
8<\/td>\nRussian Federation<\/td>\n184<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
9<\/td>\nSuriname<\/td>\n183<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
10<\/td>\nOman<\/td>\n182<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table><\/div>\n

When looking at the countries with the lowest mobile connections, north-east African state, Eritrea, sinks to the bottom the chart with only five mobile connections per 100 people, according to the World Bank.<\/p>\n

Eritrea has a population of six million people.<\/p>\n

Myanmar, where mobile giants recently bid for a lucrative mobile operating licence, is also sparcely penetrated by mobile connections, with the World Bank indicating only 11 connections per 100 people.<\/p>\n

Other low-ranked countries include South Sudan, Central African Republic and Ethiopia – where local operators MTN<\/a> and Vodacom<\/a> have shown interest in expanding to.<\/p>\n

Bottom 10 countries by mobile cellular connections<\/h3>\n
\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
#<\/strong><\/td>\nCountry\/State<\/strong><\/td>\nConnections per 100 people (2012)<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
201<\/td>\nEritrea<\/td>\n5<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
200<\/td>\nSomalia<\/td>\n7<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
199<\/td>\nKorea, Democratic Republic<\/td>\n7<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
198<\/td>\nMyanmar<\/td>\n11<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
197<\/td>\nCuba<\/td>\n15<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
196<\/td>\nKiribati<\/td>\n16<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
195<\/td>\nSouth Sudan<\/td>\n19<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
194<\/td>\nDijibouti<\/td>\n23<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
193<\/td>\nCentral African Republic<\/td>\n23<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
192<\/td>\nEthiopia<\/td>\n24<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table><\/div>\n

The World Bank lists 213 countries and states, 12 of which show no data, hence totalling 201<\/small><\/p>\n

SA versus the world<\/h3>\n

According to the World Bank’s data, South Africa has the 41st highest penetration rate, with 135 subscriptions per 100 people.<\/p>\n

In its report for 2012, the GSMA reported similar findings, showing that South Africa has a connection penetration rate of 138% – while mobile subscriptions were at 66%. These figures are expected to be 171% and 79% by 2017, respectively.<\/p>\n

Comparing like-on-like data from 2011 for Sub-Saharan Africa (53 subscriptions per 100 people) and the Middle-East and North African region (100\/100), South Africa (2011: 127\/100) shows a mobile connection rate far higher than the global average of 85 connections per 100 people.<\/p>\n

\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
#<\/strong><\/td>\nRegion<\/strong><\/td>\nConnection Penetration (2011)
\n<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
1<\/td>\nSouth Africa<\/td>\n127%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2<\/td>\nMiddle East and North Africa<\/td>\n100%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
3<\/td>\nWorld<\/td>\n85%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
4<\/td>\nSub-Saharan Africa<\/td>\n53%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table><\/div>\n

The global mobile industry brought in US$1.6 trillion in 2012, with mobile network operators contributing over 62% \u2013 $1 trillion \u2013 of the total amount, the GSMA said.<\/p>\n

\"Mobile<\/a>

Mobile subscribers SA vs MEA vs SSA vs World<\/p><\/div>\n

More on mobile connections<\/h3>\n

More SIMs than people in 2013<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Mobile networks clock $1 trillion<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

The world\u2019s largest mobile networks<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

SA\u2019s real mobile penetration revealed<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

New data from the World Bank shows which regions and countries are currently leading the way for mobile connections.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":8700,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[1750,26,6482,4423],"class_list":["post-44111","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mobile","tag-gsma","tag-headline","tag-mobile-connections","tag-world-bank"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44111","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44111"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44111\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44284,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44111\/revisions\/44284"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8700"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}