Ericsson Mobility Report today said LTE subscriptions globally have reached around 500 million in 2014.
In Q4 2014, telecom operators added 110 million new 4G LTE subscriptions, the highest quarterly additions for the first time.
See live coverage of Mobile World Congress 2015
WCDMA/HSPA added around 65 million during Q4.
The majority of 3G/4G subscriptions have access to GSM/EDGE as a fallback, although GSM/EDGE-only subscriptions declined by 65 million (0.2 percent).
Ericsson Mobility Report said the total number of mobile subscriptions in Q4 2014 was around 7.1 billion, including 105 million new subscriptions. Global mobile subscriptions are growing by 1.5 percent quarter-on-quarter and around 5 percent year-on-year.
China grew the most in terms of net additions (+14 million), followed by India (+12 million), USA (+5 million) and Japan (+4 million). Global mobile penetration reached 97 percent.
1.3 billion smartphones sold in 2014 account for close to 75 percent of all mobile phones sold in Q4 2014 against around 60 percent in Q4 2013.
Around 40 percent of all mobile phone subscriptions are associated with smartphones, leaving considerable room for further uptake. The number of mobile broadband subscriptions is growing globally by around 30 percent year-on-year, increasing by 190 million in Q4 2014 alone.
Total mobile video traffic over the next 6 years will be more than 17 times that of the last 6.
editor@telecomlead.com
