Here's the growth of mobile cellular subscriptions in a few selected countries:
Note that this is per 100. Most rich countries have more cell subscriptions than they do people.
The top region is Hong Kong at 292 (China as a whole clocks in at 125). The United States is a hair above the world average at 110. The lowest number is North Korea at 23, edging out South Sudan's 30.
Regions of the world look like this:
- East Asia: 130
- Middle East and North Africa: 124
- Europe: 123
- Latin America: 109
- North America: 108
- World: 108
- Sub-Saharan Africa: 89
- Pacific islands: 76
One phone for subscriptions/spam, one for friends and family?
Not sure what the current situation is, but plans have tended to be cheaper in Europe.
Perhaps people have business phone(s) and personal phones?
Almost 3 cell accounts per person? Do they have cell phones for their dogs? Is it in countries with large number of scam calling centers, or it just the aggregation of cell based point of sale, streaming, and other devices in developing countries that built out their wireless infrastructure instead of wired data transmission?
Yeah vending machines, point of sale machines, smart watches, tablets, cars... those are cell phones but don't count as cell phones in the US.
i can imagine a use for burner phones in hong kong
Wonder if it’s per person or per subscription? US prices them so 4 phones is about as cheap as 1.
Is that per 100 people or 100 adults?
I figure that the excess are mostly business phones. Hong Kong is a financial hub, that's probably why they're an outlier.
That's because phone plans are dirt cheap in East Asia. I can tell you that, in Taiwan, you can get a line for USD 2~3 per month. Most of my relatives have 2 or more lines per person, so I'm not surprised about the almost 3 per person in Hong Kong.
My iPad has a cellular subscription. I'm sure I'm not the only one.
Yeah, but in the US devices don't count as they don't have numbers. But yeah, cars, smart watches, all sorts of things are cellular devices.
if your iPad or other tablet has a SIM card and a cellular data plan, then it has a number. My iPad has a number, even though I can't make voice calls with it.
in contrast, my iPhone, which I only use for a couple of apps, doesn't have a SIM card and doesn't have a number. (I use a Samsung phone as my actual phone.)