Here's a piece of good news for telcos, handset makers, app developers and the public as well: There are now 4 billion mobile phone connections worldwide.

GSMA

The global industry group GSM Association (GSMA) said the number will increase to six billion by 2013, according to a Reuters report.

GSMA notes that the figure does not mean we have 4 billion users across the globe as many users own several handsets.

Quoting a GSMA official, Reuters said that a fifth of Western Europe mobile phone users use more than one device. Meanwhile, in poor countries, phones are usually shared.

GSMA also claims that of the 4 billion, about 100 million were "mobile broadband" connections, referring to mobile internet connections using high-speed HSPA standards.