We covered recently that between China and India there may be billion mobile phone subscribers in the next 5/6 years.The World Bank reports,
The "digital divide" between rich and poor nations is narrowing fast. In the U.N.'s World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS),the World Bank said in a report that telecommunications services to poor countries were growing at an explosive rate. "The digital divide is rapidly closing," the report said. "People in the developing world are getting more access at an incredible rate - far faster than they got access to new technologies in the past." Half the world's population now enjoys access to a fixed-line telephone, the report said, and 77 percent to a mobile network - surpassing a WSIS campaign goal that calls for 50 percent access by 2015. Widening access within the developing world to technology such as mobile phones and the Internet will help eradicate poverty and build stable democracies. The telecoms industry has already leapt into action to feed demand in booming markets such as Africa, where mobile phone growth has leapfrogged fixed-line communications, to help offset falling customer growth in more mature markets.We recently covered Mckinsey view onTelco's need to aggressively automate services to survive in the US, Europe and Asian Markets. To help fuel fierce demand for communications in countries which lack fixed-line alternatives, U.S. mobile phone equipment maker Motorola Corp announced this month it planned to provide an ultra low-cost mobile phone for less than $40 - aimed at emerging markets. "Developing countries are catching up with the rich world in terms of access," the report said. "Africa is part of a worldwide trend of rapid rollout. This applies to countries rich and poor, reformed or not, African, Asian, European and Latin American." Surely mobile phenomenon shall change the world- decisively for ever!!
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