Market penetration of mobile phone ownership has exceeded 100% in the UK, with the number of mobile handsets currently in circulation greater than the UK’s population, according to data published by the Mobile Data Association (MDA).
The total is based on the number of contract and prepay subscriptions, purchased over the holiday season and is further evidence of the significant mobile data growth witnessed over the past two years.
A recent survey by the MDA of some of its members, highlights the choice of many customers to use more than one mobile phone in order to separate email from voice applications, or their personal and business communication. Although in the future the MDA predict it will be possible for much of this technology to be fully combined in one device, this ‘one size fits all’ approach does not appeal to everyone.
The increasing number of visitor phones, with customers paying local subscriptions for localised services, data content and support, has contributed to the accelerated handset growth. Advances in technology, with owners keen to buy and keep handsets capable of the latest telemetry, telemetric applications, and those linked with GPS separate from their day to day mobile devices.
Europe, as a whole is also enjoying strong growth in mobile phone ownership, with Sweden, Portugal, Iceland and Italy all having exceeded the 100% market penetration and Luxembourg reporting 133%.
Internationally, there are a number of factors impacting on high mobile subscription penetration, with certain countries lacking the availability of an alternative means of communication. In regions such as China the general transition towards using mobile technology has outpaced landline growth and it is estimated that mobile phone subscriptions will increase by 58 million in 2005, compared with 45 million for regular telephones.
The MDA also points out from its research that 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.
For the UK, the MDA has forecast that 2005 will see SMS figures increasing to hit 30 billion text messages before the end of the year (see 2004 Breaks Records For Text Messaging), and WAP page impressions are expected to reach a total of 15 billion by the end of 2005.
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