Economic Development and Mobile Cellular Subscription

The World Bank reported that in 2018, there were around 7.9 million mobile cellular subscriptions in the world. Mobile cellular subscription grows rapidly. The growth of mobile cellular subscription follows a power model with a very large magnitude. This study aims to investigate economic factors of mobile cellular subscription growth. The data from the World Development Indicators of the World Bank were used in the study, covering 260 countries during 2005–2017. The dependent variable was the number of mobile cellular subscription and the independent variables were access to electricity and automated teller machines (ATMs). These two independent variables were used as proxies of economic development factors. The analysis used panel data empoloying the fixed effects model. The results of the study show that an increase of one percent in population access to electricity was associated with an increase of around 806,856 mobile cellular subscriptions in the world. Meanwhile, an increase of one ATM per 100,000 adults was associated with an increase of around 969,049 mobile cellular subscriptions in the world. These results imply the importance of economic development through access to electricity and ATM to improve mobile cellular subscription for better development. Keywords : Economic growth, mobile cellular subcription, access to electricity, automated teller machines, panel data, fixed effects model