The number of connections on mobile phone networks has crossed the four billion mark worldwide, industry association GSMA has said, forecasting further growth to six billion by 2013.
The number of connections does not translate directly into the number of users, however, because in many mature markets, one user may have two mobile phones, or a phone and a mobile data device, which would both count as two connections.
In Western Europe, about a fifth of connections are estimated to be due to one user having more than one device, a figure that probably applies to many developed markets, a GSMA spokesman said.
In developing countries, by contrast, phones are often shared.
In the run-up to the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, the wireless industry's biggest trade show which starts next Monday, the GSMA said some 100 million connections were "mobile broadband" connections. This refers to mobile data connections using the high-speed HSPA standard.
The figure reflects the popularity of 'dongles' which connect laptops to the Internet via mobile phone networks, as well as phones with high-speed data connections made by Nokia or HTC, or the latest version of Apple's iPhone.
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