Eastern
Europe’s mobile penetration surpassed 130% in
2009
Isabelle Paradis
February 2010
By
the end of 2009, mobile accounted for 81.9% of all
telephone connections in the region, compared with
65.4% in 2004. The number of mobile subscribers is
forecasted to have grown by an average of 2.2% to
466 million by the end of 2013. At that time, mobile
penetration should have reached 146.5%.
Russia,
Ukraine and Poland are by far the region’s three
largest mobile markets with an estimated 208 million,
55 million and 45 million mobile subscribers respectively
at the end of 2009. Together these three countries
generate 72.2% of the region’s mobile connections.
On the other hand, Lithuania, Russia and Bulgaria
enjoy by far the highest mobile penetration rates
in Eastern Europe with 148.4%, 147.2% and 147.4% mobile
penetration respectively at the end of 2009.
Albania,
Belarus and Bosnia have enjoyed the highest levels
of mobile subscriber growth in 2009, with estimated
growth rates of 18.1%, 14.2% and 16.2% respectively.
