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2Global Mobile Broadband Subscriptions
By 2019, the world’s mobile broadband subscriptions are expected to increase from today’s 2 billion to 8 billion and the amount of data sent by each smartphone is expected to triple. That means that in 2019, over a span of two weeks, smartphones will send 5 exabytes of information—an amount of data often characterized as equivalent to all the words ever spoken since the beginning of mankind.
3LTE Growth
4The World’s Fastest-Growing Technology: 3G
5Mobile Data Traffic
6Mobility on the Rise
7Where the Growth Is
8Transforming a Continent
In Africa today, 80 percent of subscriptions are 2G—so really just using their phones for texts and phone messages. By 2019, Ericsson expects 80 percent of subscriptions to be 3G or 4G, “enabling mobile broadband and Internet use for the vast population of Africa.” (This photo is from Ericsson’s Connect to Learn initiative in Ghana.)
9Smartphones Coming to Dominance
During the fourth quarter, nearly 60 percent of all devices sold were smartphones, up from 45 percent during the same quarter a year ago. Still, of all mobile subscriptions, 30 percent are thought to be smartphones, leaving plenty of room for continued growth. (This image shows Ericsson networks helping to connect health care workers in Rwanda with life-saving information.)
10The Smartphone Trend
11Subscriptions vs. Subscribers
While there are now 6.7 billion mobile subscriptions, the number of mobile subscribers (many with more than one device) is closer to 4.5 billion. Ericsson estimates that the world’s mobile global penetration is 92 percent, while—for the reason mentioned—regions like Western Europe (127 percent) and Latin America (115 percent) well exceed 100 percent.