Overall data traffic doubled between Q1 2012 and Q1 2013 and is now expected to grow 12-fold by the end of 2018 as the global smartphone subscriber base rises from 1.2 billion in 2013 to 4.5 billion in 2018, according to the newly released Ericsson Mobility Report. By 2018, Ericsson estimates that 60 percent of the world's population will be covered by LTE.
"We expect LTE subscriptions to exceed 1 billion in 2017, driven by more capable devices and demand for data-intensive services such as video. Owing to the build out of WCDMA/HSPA, network speeds have improved, and so has the user experience," stated Douglas Gilstrap, Senior Vice President and Head of Strategy at Ericsson.
Some highlights:
- Mobility growth is exceeding expectations and Ericsson is increasing its forecast for LTE adoption.
- GSM is expected to start declining in 2013/2014.
- Global mobile penetration was at 90% in Q1 2013 and mobile subscriptions now total around 6.4 billion. The actual number of subscribers is around 4.5 billion when accounting for people who have multiple subscriptions. There are projected to be over 9 billion mobile subscriptions by the end of 2018.
- Global mobile broadband subscriptions have grown by around 45% year-on-year and have reached around 1.7 billion.
- For Q1 2013, LTE added about 20 million new subscriptions, GSM/EDGE-only subscriptions added ~30 million, and WCDMA/HSPA ~60 million.
- Total smartphone subscriptions reached 1.2 billion at the end of 2012 and are expected to grow to 4.5 billion in 2018.
- LTE reached 100 million subscriptions in the beginning of June 2013.
- Ericsson predicts LTE will reach 2 billion subscriptions by 2018. In its last forecast in November 2012, Ericsson had predicted 1.7 billion by 2018.
- Mobile subscriptions will grow at a 6% CAGR from 2012-2018.
- 50% of phones sold during Q1 2013 were smartphones.
- By 2018, the average smartphone subscription will used 2 GB of data per month.
- From the end of 2011 to the end of 2012, the LTE footprint coverage doubled from 5% to 10%.
- Addressing network performance has the largest impact on customer loyalty -- four times as effective as introducing loyalty rewards.
- In certain networks, users spend up to 85 minutes per day with social media. This is becoming a leading use for mobile data.
