According to a study conducted by telecom equipment maker Ericsson, global mobile penetration has increased to 85 percent in Q4 2011 with total number of mobile subscriptions rising to six billion. The report further says the total number of subscribers is around 4.1 billion with many subscribers having multiple subscriptions. India and China, the world’s two most-populated nations, account for approximately 35 percent of the total 180 million net additions during Q4 2011.
The Ericsson Traffic and Market Data Report reveals for India the figures have continued to be less than first and second quarter figures, as the local operators are giving more emphasis on the active subscribers. The mobile services are mostly dominated by GSM services with 75 per cent market share. CDMA and HSPA (3G) account for 15 per cent market share, the report added.
As per the study, mobile broadband subscriptions have surged around 60 percent year-on-year and have reached close to 1 billion globally. The report also points out growing popularity of smartphones around the world.
“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,” the report says.
Subscriptions by region Q4 2011
click to enlarge
The study also reflected upon the factors behind the difference between the number of subscribers and 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,” the report adds.
Penetration percentage
Earlier, the Telcom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) in its report revealed mobile subscribers base in India had risen to 929.37 million as on May 2012. The mobile subscriber base in April 2012 was 921.02 million, thus a 0.91 percent growth was registered.
The TRAI report also highlighted increasing popularity of the mobile number portability system in the country, which perhaps also played a key role in lesser additions as pointed out in the Ericsson report. As per the TRAI data, by the end of May 2012 about 50.16 million subscribers have submitted their requests to different service providers for porting their mobile number.
Source: Ericsson Traffic and Market Data Report
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