UNCTAD: Bulgaria Has 7th Most Dynamic Mobile Penetration Globally

Bulgaria has been ranked seventh globally in terms of the dynamics of its mobile penetration in 2003-2008.

This is according to the 2009 Information Economy Report of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development.

The UNCTAD report on the information and communication technologies (ICT) shows that the countries with the most the dynamic mobile penetration are the ones that have recently liberalized their markets. For this reason, the only “developed” states in the top 20 of this category are Bulgaria, Latvia, Lithuania, and Romania. Countries such as Montenegro, Russia, and Ukraine, however, are ahead of them.

UN data shows that at the end of 2008, Bulgaria’s rate of mobile penetration was 142%. In 2003-2008, the number of mobile services subscribers grew by about 30% per year.

In 2003, Bulgaria had 2,8 million mobile phone subscribers, whereas at the end of 2008 they were 10,8 million (the country’s population is 7,5 million). Only in 2008, their number grew by 650 000.

According to the UNCTAD Report, Bulgaria is actually ranked as the “developed country” with the highest mobile penetration in 2003-2008. It is followed by Latvia, Romania, Lithuania, and Poland.

The ICT Report, however, shows that Bulgaria is not doing so well on Internet users and penetration.

Even though Bulgaria’s Internet penetration has grown by about 24% per year between 2003 and 2008, the country still has a total penetration of only 25%. In 2003, it had 650 000 Internet users. In 2007, their number reached 1,86 million, and in 2008 – 1,90 million.

In fact, Romania and Cyprus are the only EU member states with worse level of Internet penetration than Bulgaria.