In late 2007, Reuters reported that “worldwide mobile telephone subscriptions reached 3.3 billion.”  This fact has generated a lot of discussion here at the Church on its implications about how cell phones could be used to keep members and church leaders connected and otherwise further the work of the Lord.  Particularly intriguing to the Church is that in many developing countries with little landline telephone infrastructure, mobile phone usage has grown rapidly.  The scene like that in the picture below are common: folks that may not even have electricity in the home, often have cell phone service. 

Photo used by permission from Craig C. Christensen

On the surface, it certainly appears like a golden opportunity to use cell phone technology to reach audiences the Church otherwise could not.  As an analyst, though, my nature is to approach the subject more cautiously and do a little more digging before I jump to such a conclusion. Here’s what my investigation has revealed:

You can’t say that half the world has a cell phone. There are about 6 billion people on the earth, so you might think 3 billion cell phones means 50% of people have cell phones, but this is not the case. The 3.3 billion figure does not take into account people with multiple mobile phones, so the actual number of mobile phone users is less than that. Hong Kong and much of Europe has mobile penetration of around 150%, meaning 1.5 mobile phones per person, on average across those populations. The Reuters report above further states that “59 countries have mobile penetration of over 100 percent.”

Mobile phone access does not equal mobile Internet access. The US has one of the highest rates of mobile Internet access, yet even here the Pew Research center says that only about three fourths of mobile phone users have mobile internet access.  Worldwide the percentage of cell phone users with Internet access is much lower.  Some estimates put it around 800 million, or 25%, of cell phones worldwide have Internet access. (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_phone)

Not all mobile Internet access is a broadband mobile connection. Earlier this year, the GSM Association reported estimates of only 32 million broadband mobile connections worldwide, though it’s increasing at a very fast pace. This means that only a very small fraction, about 10%, of mobile users worldwide have broadband Internet on their phone. This does not prohibit slow-connection mobile Internet users from accessing content on their phones, but studies show much higher usage with broadband mobile connections.

What all this means for the Church’s use of mobile networks to further the Lord’s work is yet to be determined. On the surface, an aggressive mobile strategy seems like a no-brainer, but digging into the analysis reveals a very different story. What do you think the Church’s mobile strategy should be? What direction is your company headed with regard to mobile?

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