APPROXIMATELY 40% OF ALL wireless phones sold in Q3 were smartphones while data traffic doubled between Q3 2011 and Q3 2012, and it is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of around 50% between 2012 and 2018, driven mainly by video, says the most recent Ericsson Mobility Report, released this week by the giant communications technology maker.
Total mobile subscriptions are 6.4 billion now, although the company says that number includes about 4.3 billion actual people as many own multiple subscriptions. The number will rise to 6.6 billion by year’s end and to 9.3 billion in 2018. There were an additional 13 million LTE subscriptions in Q3 2012, and numbers are predicted to reach 1.6 billion by 2018.
Ericsson's research, which is pulled from the networks it has helped build and monitor, sales made and the data the company’s activities throw off (the company regularly performs traffic measurements in over 100 live networks in all major regions of the world), shows that online video is the biggest contributor to mobile traffic volumes, constituting 25% of total smartphone traffic and 40% of total tablet traffic. This puts new requirements on networks to cater for quality anywhere and anytime, says the report.
“Expectations of mobile-network quality have been elevated by the availability of smartphones and tablets that have changed the way we use the internet,” said Douglas Gilstrap, senior vice president and head of strategy at Ericsson, in the press release. “Mobility is becoming an increasingly significant part of our daily lives; we always have devices within arm's reach, allowing us instant access to information, entertainment and social interaction."
China alone accounted for about 35% of net additions during Q3, with about 40 million additional subscriptions. Brazil (9 million), Indonesia (7 million), and the Philippines (5 million) followed in terms of net additions. Overall, global mobile penetration reached 91% in Q3 2012, and mobile subscriptions now total around 6.4 billion. Mobile subscriptions have grown by around 9% year-on-year and 2% quarter-on-quarter.
By mid-2012, LTE coverage was provided for an estimated 455 million people globally. Within five years, more than half the world's population is expected to benefit from LTE coverage.
