Poor drive growth in global cell phone use: study

Six in ten people around the world now have cell phone subscriptions, signaling that mobiles are the communications technology of choice particularly in poor countries, according to a UN report published today.

By the end of last year, there were an estimated 4.1 billion subscriptions globally, compared with about 1 billion in 2002, the International Telecommunication Union said.

Fixed line subscriptions increased at a much slower pace to 1.27 billion from about 1 billion over the same period.

The 106-page report also ranked countries according to how advanced their use of information and communications technology, or ICT is.

Sweden came first, followed by South Korea and Denmark. Small, densely populated countries such as Luxembourg (7) and Hong Kong (11) also did well, while large developing countries like China (73) and India (118) were hampered by the size of their populations. The United States was 17th out of 154.

Internet use more than doubled. An estimated 23 per cent of people on the planet used the Internet last year, up from 11 per cent in 2002. Poor countries still lag far behind on Internet access.

Fixed broadband penetration increased to almost 20 per cent in rich countries, while globally just over 1 in 20 had access to fast Internet connections at home.

The so-called 'digital divide' between rich and poor countries remained unchanged between 2002 and 2007.