• Total 159 economies worldwide have launched 3G services commercially and the number of active mobile-broadband subscriptions has increased to almost 1.2 billion.
• While people in developed countries usuallyuse mobile-broadband networks in addition to a fixedbroadband connection, mobile-broadband is often the only access method available to people in developing countries.
• Percentage of the population covered by a 2G mobile-cellular network is twice as high as the population covered by a 3G network. 3G population coverage reached 45 % in 2011.
This passion for mobiles by common man has thrown ample opportunities for libraries to create mobile-friendly library and information services, which may lessen the risk of exclusion. The libraries need to switch over from ‘physical places’ to ‘virtual places’ to embrace and serve ‘netgens’ and ‘digital natives’2 who prefer their libraries to be where they are and prefer to access and share information from anywhere at anytime.