Mobile phones to outnumber human population by 2014, say report

The number of mobile phone subscriptions are set to outnumber the
world's population by the end of 2014, a United Nations agency report
has said. According to the International Telecoms Union's (ITU)
prediction, mobile phone subscriptions will pass a whopping seven
billion early in 2014.

Currently, there are 6.8 billion mobile phone subscriptions while the
world's population is 7.1 billion. More than a third of the global
population are online, the ITU World in 2013 report also found. The
Commonwealth of Independent States, the alliance of countries formerly
in the Soviet Union, is believed to have the highest mobile
penetration with 1.7 subscriptions for every person, the report said.
Africa has the least, with 63 subscriptions per 100 people, it said.

"Every day we are moving closer to having almost as many mobile
cellular subscriptions as people on Earth," said Brahima Sanou,
director of the ITU Telecommunication Development Bureau. "The mobile
revolution is 'm-powering' people in developing countries by
delivering ICT applications in education, health, government, banking,
environment and business," Sanou said.

The report also found that 2.7 billion people, almost 40 per cent of
the world's population, are online. Europe has the highest penetration
(75 per cent), followed by the Americas (61 per cent). Asia has 32 per
cent of its population online and Africa 16 per cent.