By 2020, more people will own a phone than have electricity - CNET

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The mobile phone is conquering the world.

Everywhere you tu, someone's glued to the screen of a phone, e-mailing, posting status updates or playing a mobile game. But that's largely in developed countries like the US or those in Weste Europe. In many developing countries, even a basic "dumb" phone is a luxury.

That's poised to change in the next four years. By 2020, 5.4 billion people around the world will have a phone, according to Cisco's annual report on mobile traffic growth. In comparison, 5.3 billion people will have electricity, 3.5 billion will have running water and 2.8 billion cars will be on the road.

The mass adoption of phones underscores society's increasing reliance on handsets for all facets of life. Yes, you can use the device to make a call, but you can also message your friends and families, pay for goods and services, tu on the lights in your home or binge-watch "Boardwalk Empire." Cisco's report forecasts a tenfold growth in mobile data traffic to 366.8 exabytes by 2020.

What is 366.8 exabytes? That's the equivalent of 81 trillion Instagram photos or 7 trillion YouTube clips.