Over six billion mobile connections recorded worldwide end of 2012 – Report

In the year 2012, more than six billion mobile connections were recorded worldwide, a joint report by the global group of mobile providers GSMA and research company A. T. Kearney has said.

According to the report released February 25, 2013, there were 6.8 billion mobile connections worldwide at the end of 2012 and the figure is expected to grow to 9.7 billion by the end of 2017.

“Mobile broadband accounted for 1.6 billion of these connections in 2012, increasing to 5.1 billion in 2017, including 920 million LTE connections,” it said.

The report titled, “The Mobile Economy 2013”, notes that the total mobile ecosystem revenues amounted to $1.6 trillion, or 2.2% of global GDP.

“The mobile industry’s economic impact reaches far beyond its already-impressive $1.6 trillion in revenues, to boost individual well-being, corporate productivity and government funding,” said Mark Page, leader of A.T. Kearney’s Communications, Media and Technology practice and co-author of the report.

Anne Bouverot, Director General, GSMA said “Mobile has gone beyond being a mere communications tool to one that provides life-enhancing, and in some cases life-saving services to men, women and children. It’s exciting to look at the possibilities ahead of us as we connect the world’s population to the mobile Internet.”

In Ghana, mobile subscriptions exceed the population of the country standing at about 24 million. Mobile subscriptions in Ghana rose to a record 25,618,427 end of December 2012 according to the National Communications Authority (NCA).

By Emmanuel K. Dogbevi