A trio of new research reports detail the dramatic and swift rise of mobile in terms of subscription growth, mobile web usage and mobile payments for goods downloaded to mobile phones.

On Pace For 5.2 Billion Mobile Subscribers By 2011
Last year there were three times as many people using mobile phones than land lines worldwide (3.3 billion and 1.1 billion respectively), according to Infonetics Research. Mobile subscriptions jumped 31 percent year-over-year while land line subscriptions declined 5 percent in the same period. Latin America and the Caribbean are the only regions where land lines are expected to grow. Strong growth, no surprise, is expected to be primarily driven by voice services in Brazil, Russia, India and China – countries where double-digit GSM subscriber growth rates are common, the firm concluded. Based on the current rate of growth, it predicts there will be 5.2 billion mobile subscribers by 2011, at which time there will also be one wireless broadband subscriber for every four wireline broadband subscribers. (Release).

1.7 Mobile Web Users By 2013
The number of subscribers using the internet on their mobile phones is expect to nearly triple from 577 million today to more than 1.7 billion by 2013, according to a new report from Juniper Research. Social networking, user-generated content, instant messaging, location-based services and search and discovery are all driving a more open environment where users can share, collaborate and exploit content free from carrier restrictions, the firm wrote. Asia is expected to be the largest market for mobile web where almost 416 million users are anticipated to be surfing the internet on mobile phones in five years. Currently, 190 million users are accessing the mobile web there in those regions. Juniper Research predicts South America holds the “greatest untapped potential for mobile web” because of relatively low wireline broadband penetration in those countries. (Release).

2.1 Billion Mobile Users Will ‘Pay By Mobile’ By 2013
Finally, Juniper Research predicts more than 2.1 billion mobile subscribers will “pay by mobile” for digital goods downloaded to their mobile phones by 2013. The firm defines digital goods as music, tickets, TV, user-generated content, information, entertainment and games – essentially any content by via the phone and delivered to the phone. Users are expected to make at least two transaction per month for mobile content by 2013 and nearly half of all mobile phone users will have made such a purchase by the same year. Western Europe and Asia are slated to account for more than half of all mobile content transactions less than five years from now. (Release).