Mobile connections pass 4 billion worldwide

Mobile phone network connections have passed the 4 billion mark worldwide and will grow to 6 billion by 2013, according to industry association GSMA.

Around 100 million of the connections are mobile broadband, reflecting the growing popularity of dongles, said the association.

However, the number of connections does not translate directly into the number of users, because in many mature markets a user might have two mobile phones, or a phone and a mobile data device.

The GMSA said that in Western Europe, around a fifth of connections are estimated to be due to a user having more than one device. In contrast, phones are often shared in developing countries.