The November issue of Ericsson Mobility Report 2017 has predicted that mobile data traffic in India will grow 11x to exceed 14EB in 2023.
The high average usage in India – estimated to reach 3.9GB per month per smartphone at the end of 2017 – is mainly due to an introductory LTE offer by Reliance Jio during the second half of 2016. Data traffic is expected to reach 18GB per month per smartphone in 2023.
Factors that will drive higher usage in general include an increase in the number of LTE subscriptions, improved device capabilities and more affordable data plans, as well as an increase in data-intensive content.
Mobile data traffic in North America is expected to reach 7.1 GB per month per smartphone in 2017 and increase to 48GB in 2023.
Western Europe has the second highest usage, with traffic set to reach 4.1GB by the end of 2017 and 28GB by the end of 2023. Western Europe will be the region with the highest growth rate in monthly mobile data traffic per smartphone during the forecast period.
Mobile data traffic for all devices is anticipated to increase by 8 times, reaching around 110EB per month by the end of 2023. At close to 85 percent, data traffic generated by smartphones is already accounting for the largest proportion of mobile data traffic.
Smartphone data traffic will increase by 9 times to account for close to 95 percent of total mobile data traffic by the end of 2023.
North East Asia has the largest share of global mobile data traffic – 23 percent in 2017. This will continue into 2023, when total mobile data traffic in the region is forecast to reach 21EB per month.
China is set to add 420 million mobile broadband subscriptions by the end of 2023, driving data traffic to 15EB per month.
Total mobile data traffic in South East Asia and Oceania will increase by 9 times to reach 12EB per month in 2023.
The regions of the Middle East and Africa and Central and Eastern Europe will experience an 11 times and 8 times increase in mobile data traffic, respectively. Total monthly mobile data traffic will reach 14EB in the Middle East and Africa and 9.3EB in Central and Eastern Europe in 2023.
Total mobile data traffic is expected to exceed 18EB per month in North America in 2023 and reach 12EB per month in Western Europe.
Mobile data traffic in Latin America will reach close to 9EB per month by the end of 2023.
