How many mobiles do you have? Check your pocket. It should be around 1.12, according to the European Commission: new stats out from the EC show that mobile penetration across Europe has risen from 103 percent in 2006 to 112 percent last year. 3G also got a bump, up to 20 percent penetration in 2007, reaching 88 million users – and 3G data services got an according bump, up 40 percent.
That’s the European average – so how does the UK fare? 3G take up in Britain was 8.3 million users in total or 11.6 percent of all mobile subscribers as of the end of last year. It’s a surprising statistic – I thought the operators had done a better job in convincing users to upgrade their handsets.
One area where the UK is ahead in Europe – a relatively high level of MVNOs, says the EC.
UK 3G penetration – be careful to ensure that active users of 3G are not then expressed as a % of total mobile users as reported by the MNOs. There are many mobiles reported in use that have been churned months before, or lie dormant in a cupboard. m:metrics consumer survey has the UK penetration at 23% or so.
Amonngst consumers of mobile internet and content, we are seeing UK penetration to be about 40%.