Demand booms

London, June 27 (Reuters): Global mobile phone use will pass the 3 billion mark — equivalent to half the world’s population — for the first time in 2007 as cellphone demand booms in China, India and Africa, a survey said today.

From African farmers to Chinese factory workers, mobile operators will have notched up more than 3.25 billion mobile phone subscriptions worldwide by the end of the year, according to a report by UK-based telecoms analysis company The Mobile World.

Along with the Internet, the mobile phone has revolutionised communication. The mobile phone has spread from city whiz kids to Brazilian slum dwellers.

More than 1,000 new customers are effectively signing up for mobile phones every minute around the world, the survey showed.

“It took over 20 years to connect the first billion subscribers, but only 40 months to connect the second billion,” said The Mobile World Co-Founder John Tysoe. “The three billion milestone will be passed in July 2007, just two years on.”

Analysts have forecast that 65 per cent of all handsets made this year will be sold in emerging markets as manufacturers, such as Nokia of Finland and Motorola of the US, push out low-cost phones and mobile phone operators cut call charges.

The figures cited in the survey take account of multiple mobile subscriptions by customers.