UK lags Europe in 3G take up

How many mobiles do you have? Check your pocket. It should be around 1.12, according to the European Commission: new stats out from the EC show that mobile penetration across Europe has risen from 103 percent in 2006 to 112 percent last year. 3G also got a bump, up to 20 percent penetration in 2007, reaching 88 million users – and 3G data services got an according bump, up 40 percent.

That’s the European average – so how does the UK fare? 3G take up in Britain was 8.3 million users in total or 11.6 percent of all mobile subscribers as of the end of last year. It’s a surprising statistic – I thought the operators had done a better job in convincing users to upgrade their handsets.

One area where the UK is ahead in Europe – a relatively high level of MVNOs, says the EC.