Global mobile penetration reached 85 percent in Q4 2011 with India and China accounting for approximately 35 percent of the estimated 180 million net additions during Q4 2011, according to Ericsson’s Interim Traffic and Market Data Report. Brazil, Indonesia and Bangladesh follow in terms of net additions.

For India, this figure continues to be lower than Q1 and Q2 due to operators’ increasing focus on active subscribers.

It further says that 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.

Mobile subscriptions have grown around 13 percent year-on-year and 3 percent quarter-on quarter while 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.

The report also says that 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 uses smartphones. This means that there is considerable room for further uptake.  

Data traffic grows by 18 percent

AS for the total monthly traffic split for voice and data, it depicts a stable trend of traffic growth with some seasonal variations. However, there are large differences in traffic levels between markets, regions and operators due to differing customer profiles.

Mobile data surpassed voice in Q4 2009 and was double that of voice for the first time in Q1 2011. Data traffic doubled between Q3 2010 and Q3 2011, which is the same yearly growth rate as for Q2 2011. The quarterly growth between Q2 and Q3 2011 was 18 percent.

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.