Number of cell phone users surging in N. Korea, posing threat to regime control

Special to WorldTribune.com

Nearly 1 million North Koreans, out of the country’s 24 million people, are using mobile phones, making it increasingly difficult for the authoritarian regime to maintain strict control over the flow of information.

policecell — A North Korean traffic policeman use a mobile phone in Pyongyang. /Reuters/Petar Kujundzic

Since North Korea introduced a 3G mobile phone network in a joint venture with Egyptian mobile provider Orascom in 2008, subscribers have sharply increased from 90,000 in 2009 more than 800,000 in September.

“The number of subscribers has reached to 1 million by the end of last year, although it is harder to monitor as it grows,” said a source in South Korea who has extensive contacts in the secretive nation. “In particular, more than 60 percent of citizens in the capital city of Pyongyang between the ages of 20 and 50 possess mobile phones,” he said.

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3G mobile phone network, Number of cell phone users surging in N. Korea, Orascom, posing threat to regime control, Pyongyang

Number of cell phone users surging in N. Korea, posing threat to regime control added by World Tribune on January 26, 2012
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