Skip to Content
Uncategorized

Mobile Traffic, Connections, and Network Speeds—Oh My!

The latest Mobile Operator Industry report contains some interesting stats highlighting the explosive growth of the mobile Web.
February 27, 2013

The GSMA, which is a mobile operator industry group, released a beefy report this week on the state of the mobile economy that is nicely designed and, more importantly, chock-full of interesting tidbits.

Among the more salient stats:

Nearly half the world now uses cellphones–that’s 3.2 billion people–and the group expects another 700 million will be added over the coming years to bring this number past 4 billion in 2018. Not surprisingly, huge growth areas are expected to be in the Asia Pacific region, Africa, and Latin America.

There are many more mobile connections than cellphone users (lots of folks use more than one SIM): nearly seven billion in 2012. This is predicted to climb to nearly 10 billion in 2017.

While most mobile connections are currently over 2G networks (3G makes up a smaller piece of the pie and 4G just a sliver), in 2017, 2G networks will make up less than half while 3G and 4G rise to a combined 53 percent of the market. The group forecasts that, in 2017, one out of every five mobile broadband subscriptions will be for an LTE or other 4G high-speed network, up from one in 25 last year.

Mobile traffic in 2012 exceeded every other year combined, totaling 0.9 exabytes per month (each exabyte is equal to a billion gigabytes). In 2017, this is expected to climb to 11.2 exabytes per month.

Last year, revenue spent on the global “mobile ecosystem” totaled nearly $1.6 trillion–a figure expected to climb to nearly $2 trillion in 2017.

Keep Reading

Most Popular

DeepMind’s cofounder: Generative AI is just a phase. What’s next is interactive AI.

“This is a profound moment in the history of technology,” says Mustafa Suleyman.

What to know about this autumn’s covid vaccines

New variants will pose a challenge, but early signs suggest the shots will still boost antibody responses.

Human-plus-AI solutions mitigate security threats

With the right human oversight, emerging technologies like artificial intelligence can help keep business and customer data secure

Next slide, please: A brief history of the corporate presentation

From million-dollar slide shows to Steve Jobs’s introduction of the iPhone, a bit of show business never hurt plain old business.

Stay connected

Illustration by Rose Wong

Get the latest updates from
MIT Technology Review

Discover special offers, top stories, upcoming events, and more.

Thank you for submitting your email!

Explore more newsletters

It looks like something went wrong.

We’re having trouble saving your preferences. Try refreshing this page and updating them one more time. If you continue to get this message, reach out to us at customer-service@technologyreview.com with a list of newsletters you’d like to receive.