Mobile device connections growing quickly

Sometime this year, the world will cross a threshold: There will be more mobile device connections than there are humans.

That doesn’t mean every soul on the planet will have a cell phone. But data released Monday by GSMA, an association of cell operators whose Mobile World Congress just opened for a four-day run in Barcelona, shows the total number of mobile connections surging to 7.4 billion this year, up from 6.8 billion in 2012. The world population sits at about 7.1 billion, and is growing far more slowly. Part of the rise in mobile connections results from customers having more than one at a time. The average user of mobile services — there were 3.2 billion worldwide last year — had at least two connections. For some customers, using more than one mobile service is a way to chase better prices as carriers compete. Elsewhere, the rise in connections reflects the exploding popularity of different types of wireless devices. Many people have both a cell phone and a tablet or e-reader — each with its own wireless connection — adding to the global total.