This report on mobile telephones from private sector commercial communications analysts is based on revenue and other market indicators of international communication trends.

Among the indicators cited as significant are the following:

• The mobile telephone service market throughout the world is growing, with two-thirds of these customers in developing countries. Meanwhile, fixed telephony continues along the downward trend that started in 2002.
• Mobile growth slowed in industrialised countries from 2004 - 2006, but grew in Africa and the Middle East.
• Mobile growth was most significant in developing economies of both emerging market countries and industrialised countries.
• While the upswing in internet services is offsetting some of the decline in telephony in the fixed sector, overall telecom growth is in mobile services. (As stated here, fixed telephony dropped from 48% in 2001 to 32% in 2006 for the total world market of telecom services.)
• Telecom, data, and internet services are responsible for moderate market growth (from 15% in 2001 to 17% in 2006).
• Use of mobile data terminals (MDT) (a computerised device used to communicate with a central dispatch office, including wide-area wireless voice telephony and broadband wireless data, all in a mobile environment) is a growing market. It is showing rapid growth in North America and the Asia Pacific region, with heavier usage forecast in the Asia Pacific, Latin America, and in Eastern Europe.
• Base stations for mobile network signals are growing in their reach of customers, with half that growth in Latin America, Central and Eastern Europe, Africa, and the Middle East in 2005 and a third in the Asia Pacific region, especially driven by India and China.