115 mln people use mobile data services

More than 115 mln people will pay mobile phone networks for data services around the world this month, market watcher EMC forecast this week. January 2004's forecast represents a 13% increase over September 2003's total of 100 million users or thereabouts, itself 14% more than the number EMC recorded for June 2003. That growth has come from Asian users, most of them in Japan and South Korea, where online gambling and "adult content" appear to be driving the popularity of mobile data services. Email and messaging are popular applications, too.