Ericsson report highlights continued brisk mobile communications take-up

New research from Ericsson has suggested that mobile penetration is outpacing birth rates across the Middle East. According to the latest Ericsson Mobility Report, 8 million new mobile connections were recorded across the region from July to September 2012, while in comparison, the estimated number of births for the corresponding period stood at a little over 1.1 million*. The total number of mobile subscriptions in the Middle East was reported to be around 990 million by Q312 with an estimated 600 million additional subscriptions expected to be added by 2018.

Additionally, the Middle East region reported one of the highest mobile penetration rates in the world at 103 per cent during Q312. Comparatively, China and India reported penetration rates of 81 per cent and 72 per cent, respectively; while the global average recorded was 91 per cent. In the Middle East, the report showed that the majority, over 80 per cent, of mobile subscriptions in 2012 are GSM. In 2018, GSM and WCDMA/HSPA are expected to have equal share of mobile subscriptions, around 45 per cent each, in the region.

The latest Ericsson Mobility Report, formerly known as the Ericsson Traffic and Market Report, also revealed that approximately 40 per cent of all phones sold around the world, in Q3, were smartphones. Global data traffic doubled between Q311 and Q312, and is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of around 50 per cent between 2012 and 2018, driven mainly by video.

Ericsson’s research shows that online video is the biggest contributor to mobile traffic volumes, constituting 25 per cent of total smartphone traffic and 40 per cent of total tablet traffic. This puts new requirements on networks to cater for quality anywhere and anytime.

Total mobile subscriptions are expected to reach 6.6 billion globally by the end of 2012 and 9.3 billion by the end of 2018. These figures do not include machine-to-machine (M2M) subscriptions. Mobile subscriptions have grown by around nine per cent year-on-year and two per cent 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 to LTE coverage.