Now 5 Billion Mobile Lines Worldwide, says Ericsson

According to the Ericsson Group, a leading manufacturer of mobile network technology, just over 5 billion people on Earth now have a mobile phone line.

This figure is a little dizzying when you consider that the world's population is currently 6.8 billion!

According to the Swedish telecoms equipment manufacturer, 2 million new lines are added to the mobile network every day. New lines and new subscribers are particularly flourishing in large, densely populated countries with emerging economies, namely India and China.

2015: 80% of Internet connections from a mobile phone

Competition between manufacturers is tough as the potential financial gains are enormous. Mobiles are increasingly being designed for surfing the web, with new developments making the experience ever-more comfortable as Internet use slowly becomes the new star feature of mobile handsets.

Ericsson predicts that by 2015, 3.4 billion mobile users will be connected to 3G, compared with the 500 million expected this year, and that 80% of people accessing the Internet will do so via their mobile phone. The firm also pointed out that in the first quarter of 2010, connections to the web from mobile phones had already overtaken voice-based network traffic.