By: MarkJ - 22 February, 2012 (2:25 PM) - Score: 1380 - Mobile Broadband, Statistics

Telecoms manufacturer Ericsson has today issued an interim update to its annual Traffic and Market Data Report, which reveals that global Mobile Broadband subscriptions have grown by 60% year-on-year and are now close to a total of 1 Billion. By comparison global mobile penetration has reached 85% (Q4 2011) and mobile subscriptions now total around 6 Billion.

The growth in mobile internet traffic is also highlighted. Ericsson states that mobile data traffic has doubled between Q3-2010 and Q3-2011, while quarterly growth between Q2-2011 and Q3-2011 hit 18%. Mobile data first surpassed voice traffic in Q4-2009 and became double that of voice for the first time in Q1 2011.


The traffic generated by mobile PC users is said to vary "widely" between individuals and markets, yet Ericsson estimates that the global average is now around 2GB per month. Elsewhere Smartphones are said to account for only around 10% of the worldwide installed base of subscriptions, although 30% of all handsets sold in 2011 were Smartphones (up from 20% in 2010).