Pakistan to Have 146 M Smartphone Connections by 2025: GSMA

Pakistan is expected to have 146 million Smartphone connections by 2025 while registering a 14 percent jump in ranking since 2018, says the GSMA.

 The GSM Association (commonly referred to as ‘the GSMA’ or Global System for Mobile Communications, originally Groupe Spécial Mobile) predicts that seven countries will account for half of new subscribers percentage of global new additions by 2025.

Pakistan to Have 146 M Smartphone Connections by 2025: GSMA

 The GSMA latest report “Mobile Economy 2019”, states that China will top the list of Smartphone connections by 2025 with 1,458 million followed by India with 1,171 million, Indonesia 410 million, USA 346 million, Brazil 204 million, Russia 187 million, Japan 162 million, Pakistan 146 million, Nigeria 143 million and Bangladesh 134 million.

 The report further states that the new subscribers’ percentage of global new additions by 2025 will include as India –24, China –8, Pakistan –4, Nigeria—4, Indonesia—3, USA –3 and Brazil—3 percent.

 However, another GSMA report “Connected Women, The Mobile Gender Gap Report 2019”, painted a grim picture of women connectivity through mobile in Pakistan.

 Pakistan was found to have the widest mobile ownership gender gap, with women 37 percent less likely than men to own a mobile phone, and Bangladesh the second widest at 33 percent.

 The report states 31 percent of women who do not own a mobile phone in Pakistan report that disapproval from their family is the top barrier to owning a mobile phone.

 Only 4 percent of men in Pakistan reported this as a barrier at all, and no men reported it as their top barrier to mobile ownership.

 Family disapproval was rarely cited as the primary barrier for mobile internet use, but where it was – in particular in Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Nigeria — it was almost exclusively an issue for women.

 The GSMA estimates that closing the gender gap in mobile internet use across low- and middle-income countries could add $700 billion in GDP growth (representing an additional 0.7 percent of GDP growth) in these countries over the next five years.