Mobile users set to outnumber non-users

India, with its high economic growth and immense disposable income, will play a crucial role in global telecom explosion, with the number of mobile users set to overtake those without it for the first time in 2008.

According to International Telecommunications Union, a UN agency, the global mobile penetration rate is set to reach 50 per cent in early 2008, from just about 12 per cent in the year 2000.

Going by the projections by the UN agency, the worldwide mobile subscriber base would cross 3.3 billion level this year. This would amount to every tenth mobile users across the world being an Indian, where the domestic industry is eyeing a total of more than 300 million subscribers in 2008.

"At current growth rates, global mobile penetration is expected to reach 50 per cent by early 2008," ITU said in its January newsletter, adding that based on its data, the number of mobile subscribers surpassed the 3-billion mark in August 2007.

"Mobile growth rates have been high across almost all regions and the number of subscribers has grown between 20 and 30 per cent globally since 2000, when worldwide penetration stood at 12 per cent," it said.

At the end of 2007, the penetration level stood at about 48 per cent, up from about 41 per cent in 2006. While noting that a penetration level of 50 per cent means every second person owns or uses a mobile phone, ITU said that these figures did not take into account "double counting" taking place because of individual consumers subscribing to more than one service.