There are now more than 2.5bn active mobile connections around the world according to estimates from Wireless Intelligence, a research collaboration between the GSM Association and the analyst, Ovum.

The analyst firm says 10 countries are largely responsible for the surge in numbers that has seen 500 million additions to the 2bn subscribers recorded in 2005. They include China, India, Russia, America, Pakistan, Ukraine, Brazil, Indonesia, Nigeria and Bangladesh.

“The cellular industry took 20 years to reach 1 billion connections, three years to reach 2 billion connections and is on target to reach its third billion in a period of just over two years,” says Martin Garner, Director of Wireless Intelligence.

“Worldwide growth is currently running at over 40 million new connections per month – the highest volume of growth the market has ever seen.”

Over the four quarters to the end of September 2006, world total net additions were 484 million. Of these, 41 per cent were in Asia Pacific. Eastern Europe and Latin America together accounted for 30 per cent of the growth. Africa took 10 per cent of the growth and the relatively mature markets of Western Europe, North America and the Middle East took the remaining 20 per cent in more or less equal measure.