Ericsson Predicts Upsurge in Mobile Subscriptions

Ericsson, a world leader in communications technology and services, has predicted that mobile subscriptions will surpass global population come 2019 by reaching 9.2 billion.

For Nigeria to leverage on this, Ericsson believes Nigerian Government must move swiftly towards the implementation of the National Broadband Plan and other pivotal policies.

This follows in-depth data traffic measurement in mobile networks from the world’s largest installed base of live networks.

According to Ericsson’s report made available to Nigeria CommunicationsWeek, these measurements have been collected from all regions of the world since the early days of mobile broadband.

Kamar Abass, managing director (Nigeria), Ericsson, while addressing journalists in Lagos recently, said that the aim of the report is to share analysis based on these measurements, internal forecasts and other relevant studies to provide insights into the current traffic and market.

As at first quarter 2014, mobile subscription rate reached 6.8 billion, globally.

Thus, the June 2014 Sub-Saharan Africa Ericsson Mobility Report shows that in 2014 phone users accessed 76,000 TB (terabyte) of data per month, double the 2013  figure of 37,500 TB per month.

In 2015 the figures are expected to double again with mobile phone users accessing 147,000 TB per month.

The rise of social media, content-rich apps and video content accessed from a new range of cheaper smartphones has prompted the rise.

Consumers in Nigeria, Kenya and South Africa are also increasingly using videoTV and media services from their smartphones.

Fredrik Jejdling, regional head of Ericsson Sub-Saharan Africa, said: “Sub-Saharan Africa is currently undergoing a mobile digital revolution with consumers, networks and even media companies are wakening up the possibilities of 3G and 4G technology. We have seen the trend emerging over a few years but in the past twelve months the digital traffic has increased over 100% forcing us to revise our existing predictions.”

In the next five years, the Report’s findings show that the voice call traffic in Sub-Saharan Africa will double and there will be an explosion in mobile data with growing 20 times between 2013 and 2019, twice the anticipated global expansion.

By 2019 the report predicts that 75 per cent of mobile subscriptions will be internet inclusive (3G or 4G).

This growth has been predicted following the launch in 2014 of a number of smartphones for under $50 by a number of major device manufacturers allowing the rapid expansion of 3G and 4G technology across the region.

The 2014 Report predicts that in just three years’ time 3G technology will become the dominant technology across the region.

Jejdling also said that, “The rise of cheap smartphones will allow vast portions of the population – from middle classes in cities to small businesses in rural areas – access to mobile broadband. M-commerce can offer endless opportunities for entrepreneurs and we’ve found that farmers are fans of mobile wallets – as well as teenagers wanting to watch music videos on their smartphone.”

Abass, urged the Nigerian Government to ensure smooth implementation of the National Broadband Plan; the plan industry stakeholders believe holds-way in addressing multifaceted challenges bedeviling investments and operations.

He said, specifically, the federal government and industry players should collaborate on improving fiber connectivity through a uniform system of charges on granting right of way (RoW); “And there is need for infrastructure sharing which will even help make available services to rural areas that are currently underserved”.

He added that infrastructural development like LTE, 3G are transformational tools in the Nigerian market that would help the industry ad more values to the nation that recently rebased its economy.

Abass listed mobile banking (banking sector), oil and gas as initial ICT drivers in the country while the agricultural and energy are the new trends network operators, adds develops and other stakeholders should monitor to leverage.

Ericsson regularly performs traffic measurements in over 100 live networks across the world and predictions have been made in collaboration with Ericsson ConsumerLab, utilising population, macroeconomic trends combined with the company’s own anonymised data.

Ericsson is the largest provider of managed services, building and improving the reach and efficacy of mobile networks, in Sub-Saharan Africa and globally.