Media > Phone subscribers: Countries Compared

Author: James, Staff Editor

Until recently fixed line and mobile telephones accounted for all of the telephone market. However, lately several companies have launched telephony services that operate over the internet called Voice over Internet Protocols (<a href=http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/Voice-over-IP>VoIP</a>). The main benefit of VoIP is the lower cost per call, and calls within the network are usually free. However, the hardware used for VoIP can be more expensive. The main drawback of VoIP is that high compression techniques are used to save internet bandwidth, which can lead to low call quality. If the internet network used by a persons VoIP system is congested call quality can also suffer.

Many telecommunications companies are launching VoIP services to retain customers, but there are several pure VoIP companies. Two main ones are: 
<a href=http://www.skype.com>Skype</a>: This is a program that is downloaded onto a computer, and needs only a microphone, speakers and internet connection to work. As of mid-2005 Skype boasted over 125 million downloads worldwide, although not all of these are active users. Skype measures its usage in terms of the number of minutes people have talked on its service -- in mid-2005 the company passed the 10 billion minutes served mark. 
<a href=http://www.vonage.com>Vonage</a>: This service resembles are more typical phone service with a telephone and monthly bill. Vonage claims to be signing up 15,000 people every week in the United States and aims to have one million customers by 2006.

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DEFINITION: Fixed line and mobile telephones (per 1,000 people). Fixed lines are telephone mainlines connecting a customer's equipment to the public switched telephone network. Mobile phone subscribers refer to users of portable telephones subscribing to an automatic public mobile telephone service using cellular technology that provides access to the public switched telephone network.

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CONTENTS

MAP
INTERESTING
Q+A

Totals

#	COUNTRY	AMOUNT	DATE
1	Luxembourg	1,700.95	2001
2	Norway	1,545.72	2001
3	Sweden	1,529.41	2001
4	Iceland	1,484.15	2001
5	Switzerland	1,476.29	2001
6	Denmark	1,457.08	2001
7	Netherlands	1,388.05	2001
8	United Kingdom	1,358.44	2001
9	Finland	1,326.08	2001
10	Germany	1,316.52	2001
11	Italy	1,310.82	2001
12	Israel	1,284.57	2001
13	Greece	1,280.65	2001
14	Austria	1,274.68	2001
15	Belgium	1,243.79	2001
	Group of 7 countries (G7) average (profile)	1,215	2001
16	Ireland	1,213.89	2001
17	Portugal	1,201.1	2001
	High income OECD countries average (profile)	1,200.08	2001
18	Singapore	1,195.56	2001
19	Japan	1,184.84	2001
20	France	1,178.83	2001
21	Slovenia	1,160.61	2001
	Eurozone average (profile)	1,151.88	2001
22	United States	1,117.9	2001
23	Australia	1,095.01	2001
24	Cyprus	1,086.82	2001
25	Spain	1,086.4	2001
26	New Zealand	1,075.97	2001
27	Bermuda	1,075.6	2001
	European Union average (profile)	1,063.26	2001
28	Czech Republic	1,050.04	2001
29	Canada	1,037.65	2001
	NATO countries average (profile)	1,009.22	2001
30	Cayman Islands	997.95	1999
31	United Arab Emirates	955.56	2001
32	Faroe Islands	931.62	2000
33	Liechtenstein	902.06	1999
	Non-religious countries average (profile)	901.45	2001
34	Malta	884.01	2001
	Europe average (profile)	883.93	2001
35	Hungary	872.15	2001
36	Aruba	850.3	2001
37	Estonia	807.52	2001
38	Antigua and Barbuda	804.17	2001
39	Seychelles	799.73	2001
	Cold countries average (profile)	792.11	2001
40	Greenland	765.97	2001
41	Croatia	742.21	2001
42	Andorra	740.49	2000
43	Guam	716.28	2001
44	Slovakia	685.47	2001
45	Kuwait	685.1	2001
46	Brunei	672.96	2001
47	Barbados	672.42	2001
48	Bahrain	671.55	2001
49	Puerto Rico	642.87	2001
50	Saint Kitts and Nevis	599.92	2000
51	The Bahamas	596.94	2001
52	Latvia	587.66	2001
53	Turkey	587.02	2001
54	Chile	574.78	2001
55	Qatar	567.6	2001
56	Lithuania	566.06	2001
57	Poland	555.28	2001
58	Bulgaria	550.62	2001
59	New Caledonia	540.93	2001
60	Malaysia	509.92	2001
61	Mauritius	509.08	2001
62	French Polynesia	507.12	2001
63	Jamaica	466.75	2001
	Eastern Europe average (profile)	462.38	2001
64	Northern Mariana Islands	452.47	2000
65	Netherlands Antilles	441.57	1998
66	Uruguay	437.62	2001
67	Trinidad and Tobago	436.88	2001
68	Argentina	416.38	2001
69	Lebanon	407.41	2000
70	Grenada	391.64	2001
	Former British colonies average (profile)	391.23	2001
71	Brazil	385.13	2001
	Emerging markets average (profile)	383.67	2001
72	Suriname	373.56	2001
73	Republic of Macedonia	372.69	2001
74	South Africa	364.32	2001
75	Romania	356.23	2001
76	Panama	355.29	2001
77	Mexico	354	2001
78	Saint Lucia	329.51	2000
79	Dominica	309.81	2000
80	Costa Rica	305.44	2001
81	Belize	304.89	2001
82	Jordan	294.48	2001
83	Belarus	292.29	2001
	Former Soviet republics average (profile)	287	2001
84	Russia	281.14	2001
85	Saudi Arabia	258.12	2001
86	Dominican Republic	256.66	2001
87	Ukraine	256.37	2001
88	Paraguay	255.25	2001
89	China	247.72	2001
90	American Samoa	247.67	1999
91	Colombia	246.83	2001
	Former Spanish colonies average (profile)	245.29	2001
92	Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	240.39	2000
93	Gabon	234.01	2001
94	Thailand	221.92	2001
95	El Salvador	218.44	2001
96	Cape Verde	214.76	2001
97	Oman	213.44	2001
98	Botswana	213.21	2000
99	Georgia	212.54	2001
100	Fiji	210.91	2001
101	Morocco	204.42	2001
102	Moldova	201.85	2001
	Religious countries average (profile)	198.47	2001
103	Philippines	191.96	2001
104	Azerbaijan	191.07	2001
105	Guyana	178.43	2001
106	Ecuador	170.41	2001
107	Maldives	168.26	2001
108	Bosnia and Herzegovina	168.03	2001
109	Guatemala	161.71	2001
110	Bolivia	152.13	2001
111	Tunisia	149.01	2001
112	Armenia	146.69	2001
113	Albania	137.91	2001
114	Peru	136.71	2001
115	Mongolia	132.99	2001
116	Kazakhstan	125.23	2000
117	Namibia	121.59	2001
118	Libya	118.28	2001
119	Syria	115	2001
120	Tonga	111.57	2001
121	Swaziland	96.08	2001
122	Turkmenistan	83.85	2000
123	Kyrgyzstan	83.28	2001
124	Honduras	83.26	2001
125	Samoa	81.88	2001
126	Sri Lanka	79.91	2001
127	Uzbekistan	68.33	2001
128	The Gambia	67.4	2001
129	Marshall Islands	66.79	2001
130	Indonesia	65.69	2001
131	Algeria	64.21	2001
132	Cote d'Ivoire	62.52	2001
133	Senegal	55.78	2001
134	Vietnam	53.02	2001
	Former French colonies average (profile)	52.32	2001
135	Cuba	51.68	2001
136	Nicaragua	49.04	2000
137	Kiribati	47.91	2001
138	Equatorial Guinea	46.6	2001
139	India	43.78	2001
140	Zimbabwe	42.67	2001
141	Tajikistan	36.16	2001
142	Vanuatu	35.38	2001
143	Togo	30.72	2001
144	Kenya	29.6	2001
145	Pakistan	28.92	2001
146	Benin	28.59	2001
147	Cameroon	27.06	2001
148	Solomon Islands	21.02	2000
149	Ghana	20.83	2001
150	Haiti	20.74	2001
151	Lesotho	20.34	2000
152	Djibouti	20.11	2001
153	Zambia	19.43	2001
154	Cambodia	19.12	2001
155	Sudan	17.54	2001
156	Uganda	17.16	2001
157	Tanzania	16	2001
158	Nepal	13.87	2001
159	Papua New Guinea	13.73	2001
160	Mozambique	12.85	2001
161	Madagascar	12.53	2001
162	Angola	12.31	2001
163	Burkina Faso	11.37	2001
164	Rwanda	10.88	2001
165	Malawi	10.58	2001
166	Sierra Leone	10.19	2001
167	Guinea	10.12	2001
168	Mauritania	9.85	2000
169	Nigeria	8.9	2001
170	Bangladesh	8.26	2001
171	Mali	8.15	2001
172	Burma	6.39	2001
173	Burundi	5.83	2001
174	Central African Republic	5.27	2001
175	Ethiopia	4.76	2001
176	Chad	4.31	2001
177	Liberia	2.83	2001
178	Niger	2.12	2001

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