The world will have almost two billion mobile telephone users by 2006 due to growth in emerging markets such as India and China, the head of Swedish giant Ericsson said Monday.
Chief executive Carl-Henric Svanberg told a technology conference in New Delhi that subscriber numbers may be topping out in the near-saturated markets of Western Europe but emerging markets would drive "fantastic growth".
The world now has 1.5 billion mobile phone subscribers.
"We can see that we are rapidly closing in on two billion mobile phone subscribers by 2006," Svanberg said.
"At least 50 percent of our growth will come from the emerging markets. We have so much still to cover in China, India and the techno-savvy Asia-Pacific region," he added.
India's cellphone market is adding nearly 1.8 million customers every month while in China new subscribers are rising by four to five million a month.
At the height of the IT boom, Ericsson was the flagship of the Swedish economy. But after the Internet bubble burst in 2000, Ericsson's credit rating plunged to junk bond status and the group was forced to radically trim down. It has since laid off half its employees and slashed costs.
"Confidence has returned to the industry and it is clear that communications is a basic need. After years of restructuring, the telecommunications sector has put the worst behind it. Growth will return from 2005, 2006," Svanberg added.
"A large share of our sales are in 3G (third-generation) mobile telephony and that is now being rolled out, which will give opportunities in broadband and wireless and will be a key driver for growth," Svanberg said.
"People like to stay connected all the time and high-speed 3G mobile networks allows users to access a range of multimedia services," he said.
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