Mobile Networks to Cover 90% of the World's Population by 2010

Mobile networks will provide coverage to 90% of the world's population by 2010, compared with 80% today, despite the misplaced policies of many governments, who continue to subsidize the rollout of fixed-networks, according to a study commissioned by the GSM Association, the global trade association for mobile operators.

Despite what the GSM survey claims is close to 80 percent coverage currently, their recent report estimates the number of people with mobile phone connections at more than two billion today, or about 40 percent, of the global population. The group claims that mobile phone coverage could reach nearly 100 percent in the next four years if “governments used a pool of funds collected from telecom operators to extend mobile coverage to rural areas instead of using the money on fixed telephone line services, which are more expensive.”

The study, covering 92 developing countries, examined the collection and use by governments of universal service fund levies. It found that governments had collected more than $6 billion from the telecoms industry, of which $2 billion has come from mobile operators.

The full report is available at www.gsmworld.com/universalaccess