Cell Phone Subscribers Surpasses 6 Billion on Earth

By Zak Islam
published

Around 86 out of 100 people in the world own at least one cell phone.

There are over 7 billion people living on this planet, with an extremely substantial amount owning cell phones.

According to the International Telecommunication Union, approximately 86 out of 100 people own at least one cell phone, which equals around 6 billion subscriptions.

China by itself is responsible for 1 billion users, while India is due to achieve the same figure in the coming months. The U.N. agency also said 2.3 billion people (or around one in three globally) were active Internet users.

That said, there were inconsistencies between developing and rich countries. 70 percent of users who utilize the Internet are from wealthier and more industrialized countries. Comparatively, 24 percent of people are located within poorer and developing nations.

A growing percentage of cell phone owners are in possession of a smartphone. The iPhone has consistently sold tens of millions of units with each model, while Google has said Android is expected to reach the 1 billion activation milestone next year.

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Zak Islam
13 Comments Comment from the forums
  • jankeke
    Wow ! 86 out of 100. That's a lot more than I thought.
    Reply
  • cknobman
    In reality it is much lower than 86 out of 100 people because these figures do not account for all the people walking around with multiple cell phones.

    My company makes it policy for everyone to have a company issued iPhone and there are also a lot of people with company issued blackberries as well.

    I am sure there are many corporate users with 2-3 cell phones.
    Reply
  • greghome
    Guess it won't be long until public payphones are something in the museum :/
    Reply
  • jankeke
    cknobmanIn reality it is much lower than 86 out of 100 people because these figures do not account for all the people walking around with multiple cell phones.My company makes it policy for everyone to have a company issued iPhone and there are also a lot of people with company issued blackberries as well. I am sure there are many corporate users with 2-3 cell phones.It says in the article : "approximately 86 out of 100 people own at least one cell phone"

    It seems they took account of those using multiple cellphones. I think they where not just counting the activated cellhpones.
    Reply
  • leakingpaint
    Oh right on Earth! I thought that rover thing found 6 billion subscribers on Mars...
    Reply
  • bustapr
    im kind of dissapointed in this. Im all for progress and more people having better tech, but Im not in favor of the fact that billions of highschool/middleschool kids are going to school with smartphones(flip phones still exist, but to be honest kids wouldnt really dare to take a flip phone to school today). Im in college, and have been in college ever since the tabletphone craze began a few years ago, and the sheer amount of people I see walking around glued to the phones on campus and in class is ridiculous. I dont know if highschool is as bad as in my college where half the students have the phones on the desk during class connected to FB, but if its anything like that I really stand against kids having smartphones.
    Reply
  • cknobman
    jankekeIt says in the article : "approximately 86 out of 100 people own at least one cell phone"It seems they took account of those using multiple cellphones. I think they where not just counting the activated cellhpones.
    Please re-read the article I think you may have misunderstood.
    Reply
  • sweetleader
    It says in the article : "approximately 86 out of 100 people own at least one cell phone"

    It seems they took account of those using multiple cellphones. I think they where not just counting the activated cellhpones.
    ..

    It is poorly worded.

    http://www.itu.int/en/newslog/Pages/default.aspx

    The original article as linked above states subscribers not individual users.
    Reply
  • whiteodian
    This can't be right. I am inclined to agree with the guy who said they must be counting people with multiple phones. Either that or they took a survey of 100 people and they didn't have a very good pool of people to choose from. I've never been to Africa, Asia, or India, but I'm willing to bet there are quite a few impoverished people in those countries that owning a cell phone is just not on their priority list.
    Reply
  • Antimatter79
    Maybe instead of a survey (I hate surveys) they could have polled all of the known major and some minor cellular service providers and asked how many customers they serve. AT&T and Verizon certainly don't have any reservations about boasting about the volume of their user base.
    Reply