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Submitted by Mike Grenville on Mon, 24 Jan 2005 15:48 |
Christmas sales figures have brought the number of mobile phones currently in circulation in the UK to be greater than its population size!
A total of 53 Million subscribers (PAYG and PAYM) were registered and active on UK networks O2, Orange, T-Mobile* and Vodafone as of 30th September 2004 (Virgin mobile's figures are NOT included in T-Mobiles totals). Of these figures, 17 Million were active MMS devices.
The new total is based on the number of contract and prepay subscriptions and is further evidence of the significant mobile data growth witnessed in the past 2 years, coming after just 11 years of digital mobile cellular services being available in the UK.
A recent survey by the MDA of its members found that many customers are choosing to use more than one mobile phone in order to separate email from voice applications, or their personal and business communication. In future it will be possible for much of this technology to be fully combined in one device, however, this 'one size fits all' approach does not appeal to everyone.
As the world becomes a smaller place, with increasing international travel, there are growing numbers of visitor phones, where customers are paying local subscriptions for localised services, data content and support. This factor is even stronger in some tourist destinations around the world and where customers may have second homes abroad.
Advancements in technology are also contributing to the boom in mobile phone ownership with users keen to buy and keep handsets capable of the latest telemetry, telematic applications, and those linked with GPS separate from their day to day mobile phone devices.
UK Is Not Alone
Looking at European statistics for mobile phone ownership, Sweden,
Portugal, Iceland and Italy have all exceeded 100% market penetration with
Luxembourg reporting 133%.
Internationally, there are a number of factors impacting on high mobile
subscription penetration; in certain countries there is little
availability of an alternative means of communication.
High penetration also arises in countries with high tourist or
business travel requirements. Often it is economically beneficial for
customers to adopt local mobile tariffs/billing, or advantageous for them
to be able to operate greater cost control. In Italy it is also know that
they exceeded 100% penetration early due to the very high adoption of
pre-pay subscriptions.
Mobile Data In 2005
Here in the UK, The Mobile Data Association forecasts that 2005 will see
SMS figures increasing to deliver a total of 30 billion text messages, and
WAP page impressions are expected to reach a total of 15 billion by the
end of the year.
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