Mobile broadband subscriptions to hit one billion mark in 2011

During the course of 2010, a significant milestone in terms of mobile broadband subscriptions was reached as their number surpassed the half-billion mark globally. Ericsson estimates that this number will double before 2011 ends. The greatest number of subscriptions, around 400 million, is expected to be concentrated in the Asia-Pacific region, followed by North America and Western Europe with more than 200 million subscriptions each.

Mobile broadband adoption has accelerated with strong growth of smartphones, connected laptops and tablets, supported by the introduction of high-performance networks. Smartphones' users are increasingly using applications and internet services on the go. Global mobile data traffic continues to grow rapidly, with Ericsson announcing in August 2010 that it had tripled in just one year.

Users' consumption of the internet and other media is changing as a result of the introduction of fast networks and the availability of various types of devices, including smartphones. According to TeliaSonera's survey of its Long-Term Evolution (LTE) users, about 23% of them now watch more online TV, and in excess of 46% surf the web more frequently when away from home.

Due to increased speed and reduced latency, LTE networks enable video streaming, which also attracts new professional users, for example, TV broadcasters and public safety organisations.

Last year was also a good one for LTE. To date, Ericsson has signed commercial LTE (core and/or access) contracts with 11 operators worldwide. Almost half of a total of 16 networks Ericsson delivered have been commercially launched, and operators and consumers are starting to benefit from high-speed access enabled by LTE.

By 2015, Ericsson believes mobile broadband subscriptions will top 3.8 billion, with 95% driven by HSPA, CDMA and LTE networks. (CDMA is based on CDMA2000 EV-DO technology. LTE includes both FDD-LTE and TDD-LTE technologies.)

Ericsson has been a supplier for the majority of HSPA Evolution networks operating at speeds of 21 Mbps or higher.

According to Warren Chaisatien, Strategic Marketing Manager, Ericsson Australia/New Zealand, Ericsson estimates the number of mobile broadband subscriptions in Australia to have exceeded the 4 million mark.

"The popularity of tablet computing devices for enterprise and consumer applications will further drive mobile broadband growth in 2011 across Australia and New Zealand. Other factors driving growth will include increasing affordability and the ubiquity of prepaid and MVNO plans.

"We can also expect mobile broadband operators to offer flexible plans with shared quotas (or buckets), allowing one subscriber to share their data quota across multiple mobile broadband devices such as dongles, smartphones, and tablets," said  Chaisatien.

ABS data shows that mobile broadband subscriptions grew by 71% in 2009-2010, while mobile broadband accounted for 36% of internet connections, up 12% from the previous year.