More than half of the world's fastest emerging mobile markets are in the Asia/Pacific region, according to a new Light Reading report, "Top 10 Emerging Mobile Markets 2007."

Of the 10 markets ranked by 2007 subscriber growth, six are from Asia/Pacific, including the top four countries –- China, India, Indonesia, and Pakistan. Vietnam is ranked seventh, followed by Bangladesh in eighth place.

Not surprisingly, those six countries accounted for a vast majority of near 320 million new mobile customers added by the 2007 top 10 emerging mobile markets: Together they added 253.4 million new mobile accounts, or 79 percent of the total.

While their rankings may have changed, that same Asia/Pacific sextuplet also featured in the 2006 ranking, when India held the top spot ahead of China. (See Top 10 Emerging Mobile Markets .)

And there's no sign that mobile growth in those two leading countries is doing anything other than continuing to grow at a staggering pace. (See India Crosses 10M Mobile Adds in March and Who's Driving the Handset Business?)

The Middle East boasts two countries in the 2007 ranking, with Iran at No. 9 and Egypt at No. 10. Together, those two countries added more than 24 million mobile subscribers in 2007.

Neither country featured in the 2006 list, which didn't contain any Middle Eastern markets. The region has been a hive of wireless activity in the past year or so, though, as more markets introduce competition and award new mobile licenses. (See Who Does What: Middle East Carriers.)

Eastern Europe and Latin America managed just one place each this year, with Russia in sixth place and Brazil one notch higher in fifth. The two markets dropping out of the ranking this year were Ukraine and Nigeria.

— Ray Le Maistre, International News Editor, Light Reading

Interested in learning more on this topic? Then come to Backhaul Strategies for Mobile Operators, which will provide a unique perspective on the progress that America's carrier and vendor community is making in relieving the so-called "backhaul bottleneck" in mobile networks. To be staged in Atlanta, May 8, admission is free for attendees meeting our prequalification criteria. For more information, or to register, click here.

Interested in learning more on this topic? Then come to the Broadband Wireless World, a conference focused on the evolution of the broadband wireless market from 3G to 4G. Collocated with NXTcomm, in Las Vegas, June 17-19, admission is free for attendees meeting our prequalification criteria. For more information, or to register, click here.