Ericsson Publishes New “Mobility Report”, Global Mobile Access and Usage Continues to Boom While Video Dominates Traffic

From the November 2014 Ericsson Mobility Report:

The latest Ericsson Mobility Report reveals the continuing dramatic spread of mobile technology and makes a startling prediction: 90 percent of people aged six years and over will have mobile phones by 2020, when the number of smartphone subscriptions is set to reach 6.1 billion. Mobile video traffic is set by then to have increased tenfold and constitute around 55 percent of all mobile data traffic.

From a Summary/Intro by Ericsson’s Chief Strategy Officer, Rima Qureshi:

The number of mobile broadband subscriptions grew even faster – at a rate of 30 percent year-on-year, reaching 2.5 billion and data usage per subscription also continued to grow steadily. 65–70 percent of all mobile phones sold in Q3 2014 were smartphones. Together, these factors have contributed to a 60 percent growth in mobile data traffic during the 12 months following Q3 2013.
Our forecasts on subscriptions, subscribers and traffic up to 2020 show continued strong growth. By 2020, 90 percent of the world’s population over 6 years old will have a mobile phone. Furthermore, 5G is expected to be commercially deployed in 2020. 5G will combine evolved versions of existing radio access, cloud and core with new complementary technologies,enhancing performance and supporting thousands of new use cases.

Video continues to dominate mobile networks. In 4G-dominated networks it typically constitutes 45–55 percent of mobile traffic.
This is driven by increased usage of video streaming and mobile video experience improvements.

Ericsson ConsumerLab research shows that consumers expect instant internet access whether they are indoors or outdoors. There is a
willingness among users to pay for improved connectivity in both cases.

The report (32 pages; PDF) is organized into the following chapters:

• Mobile subscriptions Q3 2014
• Mobile subscriptions outlook
• Cellular M2M outlook
• Regional subscriptions outlook
• Mobile traffic Q3 2014
• Mobile traffic outlook
• Regional mobile traffic
• Mobile application traffic outlook
• State of the networks
• 5G – embracing a Networked Society
• Video subscriptions drive traffic
• Improving video streaming quality
• Indoor connectivity experience
• The signatures of city life
• Mobile broadband spectrum
• Methodology and glossary

Direct to Full Text Report (32 pages; PDF)

Regional Appendices are Also Available

• Europe

• Latin America and the Caribbean

• North America

• North East Asia

• South East Asia and Oceania

Direct to All Images From the Report (via Flickr)
See Also: Interactive Mobile Traffic Exploration Tool
Direct to Ericsson Mobility Report (Homepage and Archive)
See Also: New Report, Data, and Infographic: Computer and Internet Use in the United States: 2013 (November 13, 2014)

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