Mobile data traffic up by 70 per cent annually in fourth quarter

The amount of data traffic over mobile networks reached around 2,000 petabytes in the fourth quarter of 2013, an increase of 70 per cent year-on-year and 15 per cent more than in the third quarter, according to Ericsson's latest Mobility Report on market statistics.

Based on its own monitoring of a representative sample of mobile networks worldwide, Ericsson's report shows voice traffic growing little, despite a steady increase in mobile subscribers. 

Ericsson estimates there were 6.7 billion mobile subscriptions worldwide at the end of 2013, an increase of 109 million or 1.5 per cent compared to the end of the third quarter. "Year-on-year, the global base grew by six per cent, taking mobile penetration to 92 per cent of the world's population," it said, adding that the actual number of mobile users is smaller, at an estimated 4.5 billion, due to many people having more than one mobile Sim.

China and India each accounted for around 20 per cent of subscriber additions in fourth quarter, with the rest of Asia representing another 20 per cent. The US also remained in the top five growth markets, with around five million subscribers added. Penetration is still at less than 100 per cent in China (90 per cent), Africa (72 per cent) and India (59 per cent).

Mobile broadband subscribers grew even faster in the fourth quarter of 2013 increasing by around 40 per cent year-on-year to 2.1 billion at year-end.

LTE subscribers passed the milestone of 200 million by the end of 2013, it added. Despite over one billion smartphones sold last year, Ericsson estimates that only 30 per cent of mobile subscribers have the data devices, leaving considerable room for further uptake.

Global mobile data traffic increases

Ericsson has released its latest report on global mobile traffic, showing data traffic in the third quarter was twice the level of that a year earlier. This is driven by the growing number of smartphones, which accounted for approximately 40 per cent of all phones sold.

Ericsson predicts data traffic will grow at a compound annual rate (CAGR) of around 50 per cent between 2012 and 2018, driven mainly by video. The company'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 tablet traffic.

Total mobile subscriptions are expected to reach 6.6 billion by the end of 2012, and 9.3 billion by the end of 2018, excluding any contribution from Machine to Machine (M2M). In the third quarter, China alone accounted for about 35 per cent of net additions, adding about 40 million lines. Brazil (nine million), Indonesia (seven million), and the Philippines (five million) followed in terms of net additions.

Overall, global mobile penetration reached 91 per cent in the third quarter of 2012, and mobile subscriptions now total around 6.4 billion. Mobile subscriptions grew by around nine per cent year-on-year, and two per cent quarter-on-quarter in the third quarter.

Ericsson also charted the expected growth in Long Term Evolution (LTE). From about 455 million people covered by LTE networks at mid-2012, the figure is expected to grow to half the world's population within five years. LTE subscribers are forecast to grow from around 55 million at the end of 2012 to an estimated 1.6 billion in 2018. This makes LTE the fastest-developing system in the history of mobile communications in terms of build-out and uptake, Ericsson said.