Apparently on this ball in space we call Earth there resides roughly 6.8 billion people, and by the end of 2010 there will be 5 billion mobile phone subscriptions globally claims a report by the International Telecommunication Union, report an article over on Cnet.

During Mobile World Congress 2010 in Barcelona, Dr. Hamadoun Toure, the Secretary-General of ITU stated that he is confident that we will continue to see a rapid uptake in mobile cellular services in 2010 which many more people using their mobile phone to access the net.

Mobile phone subscriptions reached 4.6 billion by the end of 2009 and expectations see that number increasing to 5 billion by the end of 2010. Mobile broadband subscriptions were at 600 million by the end of 2009 and it is expected it will increase to around 1 billion globally by the end of this year.

DR. Toure also stated that low end mobile phones can do much to improve the health care in developing countries such as sending reminder messages to patients’ mobile phones when they have a medial appointment or need a check up.

5 billion mobile phone subscriptions is a large amount, but still nearly 2 billion short of everyone on the planet having a mobile phone, but no doubt eventually everyone will have a mobile handset of some description.