The International Telecommunications Union (ITU) said Monday it expects the global number of mobile phone subscriptions to rise to 5 billion this year, DPA reported.
By the end of 2009, the United Nations agency, based in Geneva, estimated the world already had 4.6 billion cellular subscriptions.
The number of mobile broadband subscriptions will exceed one billion globally during 2010, the ITU forecast in a statement. Over 600 million such subscriptions already existed by the end of last year.
"Even during an economic crisis, we have seen no drop in the demand for communications services," the statement quoted ITU Secretary-General Hamadoun Toure as saying.
Toure was in Barcelona this week to take part in the Mobile World Congress.