Infrastructure: Mobile phone penetration

The availability of reliable, low cost telecommunications is important to all outsourcing service providers. Historically, this meant the availability of fix line telecommunications, but the focus has changed over the past few years with the growth of voice over IP (VOIP) and mobile services. The penetration rate of mobile phones, while not a perfect indicator, provides a rough guide of the overall availability of reliable telecommunications.

Several of the Eastern European nations including Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Russia, Hungary and Ukraine have high rates over 100% indicating many subscribers have multiple phones.  At the low end are China and India, which have massive telecommunications markets, but per capita subscription rates are still very low.

The data below is sourced from the International Telecommunications Union which provides regular updates on communications statistics across 200 economies. The data is for the calendar year 2008 and was updated in June 2009.