German Mobile Connections Outpace Population

Germany's 82 million people are using some 82.8 million mobile connections, the German Association for Information Technology, Telecommunications and New Media (Bitkom) reported Monday. As cell phones outnumber people, growth in the mobile connection market is coming faster than Bitkom expected, according to Willi Berchtold, organization's president.

"Lower prices and the trend of having a second cell phone have accelerated the development in the past few months," he said.

His organization had originally anticipated that Germany's cell phones wouldn't outnumber its population until early next year. Ten years ago there were only 5.6 million connections in the country.

Discount retailers that sell loose pre-paid SIM-cards unaccompanied by a phone are said to have fueled the competition in the past year and driven call prices down by 12 percent, Reuters reported. Pre-paid cards were first introduced on the market in 1999.

Germany mediocre in the mobile market

While over-saturation of the cell phone market may sound like a technological advancement, Germany actually lags a bit behind Europe's mobile coup.

Italy already has 20 percent more mobile connections than people, while Great Britain and Sweden have a market penetration of over 110 percent, according to the market research company Gartner.

In Western Europe, only France, Belgium and Denmark have proportionately fewer mobile connections than Germany. Even in developing countries, cell phone use has reached 80 to 85 percent, according to market reports.

Television on your cell phone

"UMTS has become the motor behind the mobile phone network," said Bitkom's Berchtold, referring to the cell phone technology that facilitates the transfer of large amounts of data, including video and sound. Those who watched the recent World Cup on their mobiles, for example, made use of UMTS.

According to Bitkom, 70 percent of the growth of mobile connections can be attributed to UMTS, compared to only 20 percent a year ago.