Mobile broadband reaching 40% subscription growth

By end 2011, there were more than 1 billion mobile‐broadband subscriptions worldwide, the ITU World Telecommunication/ICT Indicators Database reported.
Mobile broadband has become the single most dynamic ICT service reaching a 40% annual subscription growth in 2011.

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%).

- In Africa there are less than 5 mobile‐broadband subscriptions per 100 inhabitants, whereas all other regions have penetration levels above 10%.

- By end 2011, there were more mobile‐broadband subscriptions than inhabitants in the Republic of Korea and Singapore. In Japan and Sweden, active mobile‐broadband penetration surpassed 90% by end 2011.
- 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.

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