Your cool statistic for the day

The AP reports some pretty stunning news: The number of mobile phone users will overtake the number of nonusers this year for the first time, according to the U.N. telecoms agency. Ownership rates in developing countries are rising fastest, with Brazil, Russia, India and China alone accounting for 1 billion subscribers last year, the International ...

By , a professor of international politics at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and co-host of the Space the Nation podcast.

The AP reports some pretty stunning news: The number of mobile phone users will overtake the number of nonusers this year for the first time, according to the U.N. telecoms agency. Ownership rates in developing countries are rising fastest, with Brazil, Russia, India and China alone accounting for 1 billion subscribers last year, the International Telecommunication Union said. In 2000, only 12 percent of the global population had a mobile phone. "At current growth rates, global mobile penetration is expected to reach 50 percent by early 2008," according to ITU's January newsletter. This would amount to more than 3.3 billion subscriptions worldwide.I would be more impressed, however, if this piece of information appeared anywhere on the International Telecommunications Union main web page.

The AP reports some pretty stunning news:

The number of mobile phone users will overtake the number of nonusers this year for the first time, according to the U.N. telecoms agency. Ownership rates in developing countries are rising fastest, with Brazil, Russia, India and China alone accounting for 1 billion subscribers last year, the International Telecommunication Union said. In 2000, only 12 percent of the global population had a mobile phone. “At current growth rates, global mobile penetration is expected to reach 50 percent by early 2008,” according to ITU’s January newsletter. This would amount to more than 3.3 billion subscriptions worldwide.

I would be more impressed, however, if this piece of information appeared anywhere on the International Telecommunications Union main web page.

Daniel W. Drezner is a professor of international politics at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and co-host of the Space the Nation podcast. Twitter: @dandrezner

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