A teen, mom or banker  texting on his/her ubiquitous cell phone is a common site anywhere in the United States.   It’s now a global trend.

Mobile phone use has exploded in the last seven years, according to a U.N report.

The number of global subscriptions quadrupled from around 1 billion in 2002 to 4.1billion at the end of last year.

The sudden surge in uptake of mobile phones is most marked in developing  countries where they are now an invaluable tool among the world’s poor.

In Africa 28 per cent of the population now has a mobile phone, compared to just two per cent in 2000.

A customer visits a mobile phone shop in Mumbai, India.

Developing countries account for two-thirds of phone use, compared to less than half in 2002.

Money transfer services which allow people without bank accounts to send money by text message is believed to be one of the main reasons for the sudden increase in take-up.

Fixed line subscriptions increased at a much slower pace from  1 billion to 1.27 billion over the same period, according to the International Telecommunication Union.

Internet use has more than doubled with one in five (23 per cent) using the Internet last year. However, poor countries still lag far behind on Internet access, with only one in 20 people in Africa going online in 2007.

Despite offering the fastest Internet connection, fixed broadband makes up only 20 per cent of connections in developed countries and five per cent  in developing ones.

The 106-page report ranked Sweden as the most advanced in using information and communications technology. They were followed by South Korea and Denmark. The UK came 10th ahead of the U.S, France, Germany and Japan.

Myanmar bucked the trend of growing internet use. The Southeast Asian country saw internet bandwidth drop 90 per cent during the five-year period.

Myanmar’s military government has cracked down on Internet use by dissident groups, temporarily shutting down international connections and jailing bloggers.

The United Kingdom was ranked 10th most advanced country in using information and communications technology. It was judged on criteria including infrastructure, broadband coverage and literacy levels

As per research conducted by Access Systems Americas and Amplitude Research, buyers of new cell phones look at video capability (33%), music (34%), accessing the Internet (61%), email capabilities (63%), camera (67%), and text messaging (73%) as the most important features that they look for.

Interesting insights from the survey:

• 62 percent said they would use Bluetooth while 51 percent will use the hands-free microphone to comply with restrictions when driving
• 39 percent said they have added new applications to their cell phones.
• 41 percent said they send or check emails one to five times a day while 28 percent said they do not use their cell phones for email
• 40 percent said they use their cell phones for traffic, weather, and stock market alerts
• 30 percent said they use their cell phones for banking transactions

Related Site of the Week:   For parents of teens, we researched and located an excellent Teen Chat Decoder.  (It’s named just that!)   OMG and T+ but you should definitely keep your child away from that P.W.H.A.  Input any text abbreviation you wish to decode and the answer is before you in microseconds.  Combine  TCD  with the  Urban Dictionary and you should soon be able to decipher any text speak!

BNI Operatives: Street smart; web savvy.

As always, stay safe.

Filed under: cell phone, General Information, texting | Tagged: cell phone, chat, decoder, developing countries, global mobile phone use, internet, mobile, subscriptions, texting, urban dictionary, usage | Leave a Comment »