3 Billion GSM Connections On The Mobile Planet

The GSMA, the global trade group for the mobile industry, today announced that total connections to GSM mobile communications networks have now passed the 3 Billion mark globally. The third billion landmark has been reached just four years after the GSM industry surpassed its first billion, and just two years from the second billionth connection.

The 3 Billion landmark has been surpassed just 17 years after the first GSM network launch in 1991. Today more than 700 mobile operators across 218 countries and territories of the world are adding new connections at the rate of 15 per second, or 1.3 million per day.

The world’s biggest GSM markets today are China (509 million), which is growing at a rate of more than 7 million new connections a month and accounts for 14% of the third billion growth; India (193 million), growing at 6 million per month accounts for 12% of the third billion growth, Russia (178 million) and Brazil (93 million) which both contributed 4% of the third billion growth.

“The growth of mobile communications continues to soar, not least in emerging markets, which are responsible for 85 percent of new connections today,” said Rob Conway, CEO and Board Member of the GSMA. “One cannot underestimate the importance of mobile as a vital communications tool, connecting so many people, often for the first time in their lives.

The news comes as the GSMA premiered a special documentary film Mobile Planet, exploring the social and economic value of mobile communications across 20 countries of the world. Produced in partnership with TelecomTV, the film features a host of locations from Japan to Rwanda, South Africa to Chile, where mobile is enhancing lives and changing the face of societies. The film was shown for the first time in full at the British Academy of Film and Television Arts in London.

Many American cellular phone users planning to travel abroad wonder whether their cell phones will work while they are overseas. Unfortunately, the world of international roaming often seems intentionally designed to confuse consumers. For example, customers of Verizon Wireless and Sprint-Nextel will likely find that their phones will not work at all in most countries since they work on the CDMA and PCS/iDEN standards, respectively, and most of the rest of the world operates on the GSM standard. T-Mobile and AT&T Mobility customers are in more luck since both companies’ networks operate on the GSM standard.

Beyond operational worries, pricing is also likely to be an expensive headache. International roaming (i.e. using an unmodified U.S. cell phone to make calls overseas) is likely to cost $1.50-$2.00 per minute or more, depending on location. In many instances, customers can buy a replacement SIM card (the card in all GSM phones that holds network and customer information) in their destination country and use a prepaid service.

The Yackie Mobile SIM card allows you to roam in 200 countries, with unlimited free incoming calls in 150 of these countries. Users have the option of choosing a free personal phone from a list of 24 countries to attach to their SIM card upon registration. With Yackie Mobile incoming calls are only ¢29/minute and outgoing calls in most countries are ¢39/minute. Yackie Mobile does not require a contract and is simply pay as you go.