Infonetics Research has released its new "Fixed and Mobile Subscribers" market forecast report, which shows that the world's number of mobile subscribers at the close of 2008 was nearly four times greater than the number of access-line subscribers.
In an announcement released by Infonetics about the report, Stéphane Téral, Infonetics Research's principal analyst for mobile infrastructures, says the global economic recession did not curb consumer investment in mobile-communications technology:
The global recession did not prevent people from using communication services, but it clearly accelerated the pace of wireline-to-mobile substitution. China, which had half a billion mobile subscribers in 2008, and India together make Asia-Pacific the world's largest mobile-subscriber region, now and into the future. The EMEA region is next, with strong growth driven by Africa. Mobile subscriptions will continue to grow strongly over at least the next five years, driven mainly by basic voice service needs in these regions, particularly in Brazil, Russia, India and China.
Highlights from the research:
- The number of mobile subscribers grew 17.4 percent in 2008 from 2007, while access-line subscribers cropped 5.5 percent.
- Access lines are disappearing more rapidly in North America and China, because of fixed-to-mobile substitutions, the switch from copper to fiber lines, and the recession, during which many people ditched their landlines and kept only their mobile or smart phones.
