A new survey by the researcher reveals there were 2.84 billion global mobile subscribers at the end of March 2007, and that the current rate of growth will take the total past 3 billion next month.

This represents an increase of more than 135 million on December 2006, and is equivalent to more than 1,000 new customers every minute. Over 250 million new handsets were sold in the quarter.

It’s the third strongest quarter in the industry’s history. The Mobile World now predicts global penetration will hit 50 per cent by the end of the year. Penetration in Europe now exceeds 100 per cent, with 666 million connections.

John Tysoe, principal analyst at The Mobile World, said: “It took over 20 years to connect the first billion subscribers, but only 40 months to connect the second billion. The three billion milestone will be passed in July 2007, just two years on. By the end of the year, the global mobile base will exceed 3.25bn connections, or over half the world’s population. With handsets and services becoming ever more affordable, the prospect of a fully connected mobile world is becoming ever more real.”