A new market study from Portio Research predicts that 50% of the world's population will be using a cell phone by the end of 2009, and Africa now boasts the fastest growth rate in the world, forecast to add 265 million new mobile subscribers over the next 6 years.

Among the top 25 growth markets ranking list (2006-2011) there are a few surprises. India wins the top spot, just ahead of China, and almost equally in 3rd place are Brazil, Indonesia and Nigeria, but the real surprises start in 6th place with the U.S. mobile market tipped to grow by almost 66 million net additions from the start of 2006 to the end of 2011. This puts volume growth in the U.S. ahead of fast developing markets such as Pakistan, Mexico and the Ukraine. Russia is positioned lower than some may expect, in 11th place, below Iran and Bangladesh, while Japan appears in 18th place, with a predicted 14 million net subscriber additions by 2011, surprisingly placing above South Africa and Venezuela.

While Western Europe and the U.S. will see 50%+ subscriber penetration of 3G by 2011, the Asia Pacific region will see only 35%, albeit with 1.06 billion subscribers by 2011, making this the largest regional 3G market in the world.

- U.S. offers more room for growth than Russia, and Japan offers greater future growth than South Africa.
- The number of mobile subscribers worldwide reached over 2 billion by the end of 2005, and is predicted to rise to 3.96 billion by 2011.
- The Asia Pacific Region will account for 50% of the total number of subscribers worldwide by the end of this decade with a staggering 1.067 billion subscribers shared between China and India alone, the world's two biggest mobile markets.

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