Report: Cell phone use soars in Latin America

If you were to be asked, “what is the world’s second-largest market for mobile devices?” perhaps you may guess regions with advance industrial nations like North America or Western Europe. Another assumption may be made for the continent of Africa with its burgeoning populace.

The surprising answer, however, is Latin America.

A new report by Wireless Intelligence found that Latin America is only behind the Asia-Pacific region in terms of mobile use in the second quarter of this year. The 530 million mobile connections in Latin America represent 11% of the world’s global users, according to the study. Thus, the region surpassed Western Europe (515 million users) for the first time and is also ahead of fourth-place Africa by about 34 million users.

Wireless Intelligence also found that Brazil is the Latin American country with the most connections, 188 million, and also the world’s fifth-largest mobile market. Though Brazil accounted for roughly one-third of Latin American users the report also noted exponential growth in the Caribbean. Hence, one researcher found that there’s plenty of room for growth in the Americas:

Joss Gillet, Wireless Intelligence Senior Analyst says, “In recent quarters, Latin American mobile operators have increased their marketing and technological investments, which have had a positive impact on connections growth. This has also led to increased demand for new data services in the region. Compared to the more saturated European markets, the Americas region still has plenty of room for growth.”

Despite being in second Latin America has a long way to catch up to the Asia-Pacific; that area has nearly half of the world’s mobile users with over 2.4 billion connections.

Image- Reuters (“A woman stands in front of a mobile phone shop in Mexico City October 2009.”)
Online Sources- Total Telecom, Enterprise Communications Europe, The Independent, AFP