Following a small decline in 2020, the penetration of mobile cellular subscriptions worldwide rose again in 2021, reaching a record 110 subscriptions per 100 inhabitants. Mobile subscriptions with broadband capability (3G or better) followed the same trend, reaching 83 subscriptions per 100 people.
This increase was driven by developing countries in the Asia-Pacific and Americas regions. By contrast, in Africa mobile cellular subscriptions declined in 2021, after increasing in 2020.
Fixed telephony continues its steady decline, with 11 subscriptions per 100 inhabitants globally, down from a peak of 19 per 100 in 2006.
The decline is seen in all regions except the Arab States, where fixed telephone line subscriptions have been growing again since 2015.
Fixed broadband subscriptions continue to grow steadily, attaining 17 subscriptions per 100 inhabitants on a global average in 2021. In the LDCs, despite double-digit growth, fixed broadband remains the privilege of a few, with only 1.4 subscriptions per 100 inhabitants.
At the global level, the number of fixed broadband subscriptions has been higher than that of fixed telephony since 2017.
After a slowdown in the growth of mobile broadband subscriptions in 2020, it picked up pace again in 2021, reaching 83 per 100 inhabitants worldwide.
The strongest growth was recorded in the Asia-Pacific region, at 10.5 per cent, followed by the CIS region (7.0 per cent) and then Africa (6.7 per cent), which was the region with the highest growth during the previous three years.