14 DAY TRIAL // According to leading telecommunications infrastructure solutions provider Ericsson, the number of mobile subscriptions all around the world already passed the 5 billion mark. The company says that the 5 billionth mobile subscriptions was added to the count on Thursday, July 8, 2010, and that this is yet another important milestone in Internet's move towards becoming mobile.
Emerging markets like India and China proved very helpful in this direction, the company added. For comparison, Ericsson notes that the number of mobile subscriptions ten years ago was about seven times smaller. In 2000, a number of 720 million people had mobile subscriptions, less than the number of mobile phone users in China today.
At the same time, Ericsson states that the number of mobile broadband subscriptions is also growing fast. By 2015, the mobile broadband subscriptions should top 3.4 billion, an impressive growth when compared to the 360 million registered in 2009. 80 percent of all people who access the Internet are expected to do so from their mobile devices, recent studies show.
“For some it's a question of convenience, for others a necessity. Mobile subscriptions allow people who don't have access to a bank or a bank account to transfer money; fishermen and farmers can get quick updates on sudden changes in the weather forecast, villagers to get local medical care, and children to access online education. It facilitates daily operations of small businesses and drives economic growth,” Ericsson notes.
In mature markets, the growth in network traffic is helped by the devices used, and not necessarily by the number of people. Ericsson estimates a number of 50 billion connections during this decade. The entire communications environment is changing. In December last year, the amount of data traffic on networks was higher than the amount of traffic generated from voice calls.
“Machine-to-machine communications, or M2M, will be a key component in the future growth of the mobile industry. For energy companies it could be smart meters that read themselves, increase business efficiency and cut operational expenses. In transportation - tracking solutions improve route optimization and safety for vehicles on the road. Digital signs that can be updated remotely, cameras that can send pictures halfway around the world and even a soda machine that requests restocking when needed are other examples that machine-to-machine technology make possible,” Ericsson concludes.