Category Archives: Telecommunications

World Leaders on Twitter

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Heads of state have realized the importance of being active in social media. The number of heads of state with Twitter accounts increased 78% in 2012 with respect to 2011, according to a report by the Digital Policy Council. Roughly 75% of them have Twitter accounts. According to a Washington Post article, world leaders that tweet more come from countries that have a tradition of transparency. 63% of the them come from “politically stable” countries.

President Barack Obama (@BarackObama) has the largest number of followers on Twitter for a head of state, with more than 25 million followers. In second place comes Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez (@chavezcandanga) with 3.8 million followers. Turkish president Abdullah Gül (@cbabdullahgul) comes in third place with 2.6 million followers, and Queen Rania of Jordan (@QueenRania) is fourth with 2.5 million followers. Russian prime minister Dmitry Medvedev (@MedvedevRussiaE) comes in fifth place, and Brazilian president Dilma Rouseff (@dilmabr) comes in sixth place.

Other countries with leaders who have Twitter accounts include, Germany, India, Morocco, Tunisia, India, Argentina, Somalia among others. Even Pope Benedict XVI (@Pontifex) has Twitter presence.

For more information visit: Digital Daya: World Leaders on Twitter – Ranking Report, December 2012.

 

Mobile Phone Penetration in Brazil

The cell phone penetration rate in Brazil as of 2007 was 63.6%, according to the Brazilian National Telecommunications Agency. With a population of almost 200 million people, Brazil is one of the World’s largest markets for mobile phone manufacturers. The chart below shows mobile phone penetration in Brazil from 2002 thru 2007.

Mobile phone penetration in Brazil 2002-2007

Source: National Telecommunications Agency of Brazil

See also: Mobile phone penetration in China and in India

Mobile Phone Penetration in India

According to the Department of Telecommunications of India, there were 346.9 million wireless telephones in India as of December 2008. Using a total population of 1,147,995,904 (July 2008 estimate), the penetration rate of cell phones was 30.2%. For comparison purposes, the penetration rate as of December 2007 was only 20.7%. In other words, the number of mobile phones in India increased by 113 million in 12 months, an astounding 48.5% growth rate.

You may also want to compare India’s mobile phone penetration to China’s mobile phone penetration.

Mobile Phone Adoption in China

Cell phone penetration in China as of 2006 was only 35.3 handsets per 100 people. Considering that the population of China is over 1.3 billion, we can estimate that there are at least 463 million mobile handsets in operation. More interestingly, given that mobile phone penetration rates in more advanced countries are over 75%, as China continues to develop the market for cell phones will more than double in size.

The chart below shows mobile phone adoption in China from 2002-2006.

Mobile phone adoption in China 2002-2006

Source: National Bureau of Statistics of China