Ovum: 7.8bn global mobile connections in 2016

Thanks to 30 per cent growth in the next five years.

We reported just over a year ago that the world had reached five billion connections, but now according to analyst firm Ovum's latest report, global mobile connections will increase by a third to approximately 7.8 billion in 2016.

The company expects this will result in total mobile service revenues to reach around $1.05 billion in 2016, though this represents a 1.9 per cent CAGR between 2011 and 2016.

Ovum says this is despite the rise of mobile data revenues for telecoms operators, which report authors expect to grow at a CAGR of 7.2 per cent between 2011 and 2016 to reach $419 billion in 2016.

It says connections with grow across all regions, but the driving force will be Asia, Africa and the US as they're set to add billions of connections by 2016 between them.

Ovum predicts that mobile revenues in Africa will grow at a CAGR of 4.9 per cent from 2011 to 2016, leaving Western Europe revenues to fall by 0.7 per cent, from the current $193 billion to $186 billion in 2016.