Global mobile phone usage soon to exceed human population

MANILA, Philippines - There are now over six billion mobile phones in use globally, roughly three-fourths of the world’s population of more than seven billion, the World Bank said in a study.

“Ownership of multiple subscriptions is becoming increasingly common, suggesting that their number will soon exceed that of the human population,” the study, titled “Information and Communications for Development 2012: Maximizing Mobile” pointed out.

The study was undertaken by infoDev, the World Bank’s technology entrepreneurship and innovation program.

It said more than 30 billion mobile applications, or apps, were downloaded in 2011 – software that extends the capabilities of phones, for instance to become mobile wallets, navigational aids or price comparison tools.

It indicated that the global short message system (SMS), also known as text messaging, reached 4.6 trillion in 2010, from 3.5 trillion in 2009. That can likewise be translated to 12 million SMS per day in 2010 from 10 million SMS per day the year before.

In the Philippines, there are an estimated 86 million mobile phones, which indicates that 92 percent of the country’s population has access to a mobile phone.

Meanwhile, total mobile payment transactions globally will total nearly 4.5 billion in 2012, up from just 125 million in 2007, growing at an annual compounded rate of 105 percent, according to US-based research firm Gartner Research.

In the Philippines, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) estimates that there are at least eight million Filipinos using mobile phones to make bills payments and other banking related activities. Majority of the mobile payment transactions have to do with money transfers from migrant Filipinos to their beneficiaries in the Philippines.

World Bank vice president for sustainable development Rachel Kyte said that mobile communications offer major opportunities to advance human and economic development – from providing basic access to health information to making cash payments, spurring job creation, and stimulating citizen involvement in democratic processes.

“The challenge now is to enable people, businesses, and governments in developing countries to develop their own locally-relevant mobile applications so they can take full advantage of these opportunities.” Kyte added.

Based on data compiled from various sources, China emerged as the country with the most mobile phones with more than a billion units, followed by India with just a shade below a billion units.

The next seven largest mobile phone users are the United States, Brazil, Indonesia, Russia, Japan, Pakistan, Germany and Iran.

The Philippines ranked 15th overall behind Bangladesh, Nigeria, Mexico and Italy.

The World Bank study said that the country with the largest utilization of the mobile phone for financial services is Kenya, through the popular MPESA. The service now encompasses six countries in Africa, with 20 million users and $500 million worth of transactions.