ABSTRACT
When one lives in an era of rapid progress, the changes can appear almost commonplace, and it is easy to take them for granted and forget their profundity. It is thus helpful to review some basic statistics. One useful case to consider is mobile telephony. Perhaps no other technology represents so many facets of the revolution in ICT: computing power, multimedia, storage, and connectivity, with both hardware and software aspects being crucial. In 2001, there were 15.5 mobile cellular subscriptions for every 100 people in the world.* In 2013, there were 96.2.† The growth was particularly striking in the developing world,‡,§ which went from only 7.9 cellular subscriptions per 100 people in 2001, to 89 in 2013.¶ Meanwhile, the developed world had, by 2013, more cellular subscriptions than people (127 per
100 people, compared to 47.1 in 2001).* Figures 4.1 and 4.2 show the trends in mobile telephone subscriptions in various countries. In 2003, 61% of the world’s population resided in an area with cellular coverage. By 2010 the figure was 90%.† This all represents a truly staggering growth in communications power and connectivity for individuals and organizations everywhere.
