1.5 Billion Prepaid Subscribers Worldwide
Informa Telecoms & Media says that prepaid subscriptions worldwide passed the 1.5 billion milestone at the beginning of July 2006, as mobile subscriptions worldwide approach the 2.5 billion mark. Latest research from Informa reports the share of prepaid subscriptions increasing to an estimated 61.8% of total subscriptions, up from 58.6% at the end of June 2005. Abigail Browne, senior analyst on WCIS said, "The last half billion prepaid subscriptions have been gained by mobile operators in less than 17 months since February 2005, nearly twice as fast as the 29 months it took them to add the previous half billion. In the year to June 2006 more than 75% of mobile net additions worldwide were prepaid".