Half the world owns cellphones

Global mobile phone use will pass the 3-billion mark, or half the world’s population, for the first time in 2007 as cell phone demand booms in China, India and Africa, a survey shows.

From African farmers to Chinese factory workers, mobile operators will have notched up more than 3.25 billion mobile phone subscriptions worldwide by the end of the year, according to a report by UK-based telecom analysis company The Mobile World.

“It took over 20 years to connect the first billion subscribers, but only 40 months to connect the second billion,” said The Mobile World co-founder John Tysoe. “The 3 billion milestone will be passed in July 2007, just two years on.” Analysts have forecast that 65 per cent of all handsets made this year will be sold in emerging markets.