Global mobile broadband has exceeded one billion subscriptions by the end of 2011 recording a 40% annual growth, according to the latest International Telecommunication Union (ITU) data as at June 2012.
The ITU argues that mobile broadband has become the single most dynamic ICT service, indicating that although developing countries are catching up in terms of 3G coverage, huge disparities remain between mobile‐broadband penetration in the developing (8%) and the developed world (51%).
Mobile broadband refers to high-speed wireless Internet connections and services designed to be used from arbitrary locations.
The data revealed that in Africa there are less than five mobile‐broadband subscriptions per 100 inhabitants as against other regions where penetration levels are above 10%.
In 2011, 144 million mobile‐broadband subscriptions were added in the BRICS (Brazil, the Russian Federation, India, China and South Africa), accounting for 45% of the world’s total subscriptions added in 2011, the ITU indicated.
By Ekow Quandzie