According to the mobility report released by Ericsson, the global mobile subscriptions increased 110 million in the third quarter, reaching about 6.6 billion in Q3 2013. The subscription kept growing steadily, with the YoY growth of 7% and QoQ growth of 2%.
APCA (excluding China and India) ranked the first with 1,319 million subscriptions, followed by China with 1,201 million. The mobile subscription in other regions were all below 1,000 million. In terms of new mobile subscriptions, China, Africa and APCA (excluding China and India) occupied the top three. China added 30 million subscriptions, accounting for 25% of global net addition.
However, the penetration in China was 88%, slightly lower than the global average of 92%. Central and Eastern Europe had the highest penetration of 139%, and Western Europe ranked the second with 125%. The number was quite close in Middle East, APCA and North America.
The smartphone accounted for 55% of all mobile phones sold in Q3 2013, showing an upward trend compared to 40% for 2012. Global mobile broadband subscriptions grew by about 40% annually, and was predicted to exceed 2 billion in 2013. LTE (Long Term Evolution) subscription has hit 150 million with 25 million addition in Q3 2013, increasing rapidly. Ericsson made a forecast that China would add substantial LTE subscription during the period between 2013 to 2019, and reach over 700 million by the end of the forecast period.
For mobile traffic, with the rapid growth of subscriptions, Asia Pacific would take a large proportion of the total mobile traffic both in 2013 and 2019. China alone was expected to increase over 500 million mobile subscriptions during the period.