World's poor driving global cell phone use?

A United Nations report released yesterday has several interesting pieces of information. The 106-page report put South Korea at number-two in terms of ICT (information and communications technology), just behind Sweden. 

But what caught my attention was the figure that a majority of people around the world have cell phone subscriptions.

Six in 10 people around the world now have cell phone subscriptions, signaling that mobile phones are the communications technology of choice, particularly in poor countries.

I have read several times that the wired telecommunications services are spotty in some parts of the world in part because thieves dig up the copper cables and sell them for scrap. Despite being a more advanced technology, wireless communications doesn't require the same amount of infastructure, which makes it more suitable and reliable. 

And according to the report, this could be good news for Sweden and South Korea, two nations where cellular phone manufacture is a major industry: the worldwide growth, even in poorer countries, means we are not likely to see a decline in demand.