China has long held the record of being the most populous nation on earth. More recently, the country has been in the news for its spectacular growth in the mobile phones sector. Back in 2007, there was a big hoo haa when Chinese government officials announced that they have went past the astronomical 500 Million subscribers mark. In the span of just five years, the number of people with mobile phones in China has doubled and has now crossed an astonishing 1 Billion mark!
Official Chinese statistics showed that the country had touched 951.6 million subscribers back in October 2011. Considering the growth rate that was being notched up by China, it is likely that the country has gone past the 1 Billion mark sometime in early March.
All said, it is remarkable to hear that even with over a billion people with mobile phones; there is still room for more growth in China with “only” 74 percent of its population owning a mobile phone. China has a total population of 1.35 billion people.
As for telecom networks, there are three state owned companies of which China Mobile is the biggest – with over 67 percent of the market. It is followed by China Unicom and China Telecom.
The only country that can come close to China and has similar numbers is India. With over 1.2 Billion people, India too is adding mobile subscribers at a prolific rate. At last count, India’s wireless subscriber count was an astronomical 893.84 million – and going by its current growth rate, we might as well see India in the billions club in the not too distant future.
How many of you think India will cross the billion mark by the end of 2012?
