Worldwide mobile telephony subscriber numbers will climb at triple the compound annual growth rate expected from the wireline side between 1996 and 2002, according to the Yankee Group’s “Global Trends of Cellular/PCS Markets.”
The total mobile-phone subscribers numbered 85.3 million in 1995, a figure the Yankee Group believes increased to 198.5 million by the end of 1997. The research group predicts 529 million subscribers worldwide by 2002.
These numbers translate into global cellular and personal communications services revenues expanding from US$87.2 billion in 1996 to US$313.2 billion in 2002, said the company.
