By
Telecom Lead Team: India and China account for approximately 35 percent of the
estimated 180 million net mobile additions in Q4 2011, according to Ericsson report.
For
India, this figure continues to be lower than Q1 and Q2 due to operators’
increasing focus on active subscribers.
Brazil,
Indonesia and Bangladesh follow in terms of net additions.
Global
mobile penetration reached 85 percent in Q4 2011 and mobile subscriptions now
total around 6 billion.
However,
the actual number of subscribers is about 4.1 billion, since many subscribers
have several subscriptions. This is equal to around 60 percent of the world’s
population, according to a report from Ericsson.
There
is a large difference between the number of subscriptions and subscribers.
This is due to the fact that many subscribers have several subscriptions.
Reasons for this could include users lowering their traffic cost
by optimizing their subscriptions for different types of calls, or
having different subscriptions for mobile PCs/tablets and for mobile phones.
In
addition, it takes time before inactive subscriptions are removed from
operator databases. Consequently, penetration can easily reach above 100 percent,
which is the case in many countries
today.
Mobile
subscriptions have grown around 13 percent year-on-year and 3 percent quarter-on-quarter.
Around
75 percent of subscriptions are GSM. 15 percent are WCDMA/HSPA. Globally,
mobile broadband subscriptions have grown around 60 percent year-on-year and
have reached close to 1 billion.
There
is continued strong momentum for smartphone uptake in all regions.
Approximately 30 percent of all handsets sold in 2011 were smartphones,
compared to around 20 percent for the full year 2010. However, only around 10
percent of the worldwide installed base of subscriptions use smartphones. This
means that there is considerable room for further uptake.
Mobile
voice traffic has doubled over the last four years and continues to grow at a
steady rate. The growth is especially high in regions with a strong increase in
subscriptions, such as developing nations in Asia.
