COMCEC Transport and Communications
Outlook 2018
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6.1. OVERVIEW OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS IN THE WORLD
As significant and rapid technological developments occur, dominant choices for
telecommunication change. While fixed telephony was an indispensable way of communication
a few decades ago, mobile phones and then the Internet have come into prominence.
As can be seen in Figure 27, fixed telephone subscriptions per 100 people reached its peak
globally in 2005 with a value close to 20 percent and then it started to decrease rapidly. This
downward trend occurred in all country income groups. While this decrease was observed in
high income countries earlier, others followed later.
Figure 27: Fixed telephone subscriptions (per 100 people) (1975-2016)
Source: World Bank
As seen in Figure 28, as opposed to downward trend in fixed telephony, there is a steep upward
trend in mobile telephony. As of 2016, mobile cellular subscriptions per 100 people were 126,
100 and 58 percent for high, middle and lower income countries respectively.
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