Subscriptions for smartphones
globally will more than double by 2020 and help drive an expected eightfold
surge in mobile data traffic, Swedish telecoms network gear maker Ericsson predicted on Tuesday.
The company said it expected there
will be 6.1 billion smartphone subscriptions globally by the end of 2020, up
from 2.7 billion in 2014, as more people in emerging markets buy cheap
smartphones instead of basic phones.
In its semi-annual Mobility Report,
Ericsson's forecast now incorporates an additional year compared to the June
outlook, which ended in 2019.
"The trends are stable and the
underlying growth factors are the same," Peter Jonsson, project manager
for the report, told Reuters.
Ericsson, the world's top mobile
network equipment maker, expects an eightfold surge in mobile data traffic
between 2014 and 2020, while in June it forecast tenfold growth between 2013
and 2019. The difference is explained by a higher starting point in 2014,
Jonsson said.
More use of mobile data per
smartphone subscription, mainly driven by video, is contributing to the
expected increase. Video is expected to increase its share of total mobile
traffic in 2020 to 55 percent, up from 45 percent in 2014, Ericsson said.
Fifth-generation mobile telephony is
expected to be commercially deployed in 2020, Ericsson said, adding that 5G is
predicted to have a faster uptake than 4G, which again was faster than 3G.
The new generation of mobile phone
technology is expected not only to bring higher data speeds, but also to better
accommodate a wide variety of connected devices.
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