Ericsson Mobility Report Announces Forecast
By 2021, approximately 28 billion connected devices will emerge.

Between 2015 and 2021, cellular IoT will show the highest growth rate, and the number of IoT connected devices is expected to grow at an average annual rate of 23%. By 2021, approximately 28 billion connected devices will exist, of which about 16 billion will be IoT devices.

Western Europe will lead the IoT market, with the number of IoT devices increasing fourfold by 2021. This growth will be driven primarily by regulatory decisions regarding demand for intelligent utility meters and connected cars, including the EU e-Call directive to be implemented in 2018.

Rima Qureshi, Senior Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer at Ericsson, said, “The IoT is growing rapidly now due to falling device prices and the emergence of innovative applications. With the commercialization of 5G networks in 2020, additional features such as connectivity and network slicing for an exponentially increasing number of devices will be provided to support seamless IoT services.”




The number of smartphone subscriptions continues to increase and will exceed the number of feature phone subscriptions in the third quarter of this year. The number of smartphone subscriptions, currently around 3.4 billion, is expected to double to 6.3 billion by 2021. Additionally, according to the report, the current number of mobile subscribers has reached 5 billion, which is evidence of the remarkable growth of mobile technology achieved in a relatively short period.

According to the details of the report, cellular data usage by teenagers to watch videos on smartphones increased by 127% over a 15-month period, demonstrating a dramatic shift in viewing behavior. Between 2011 and 2015, the time teenagers spent watching TV or videos on traditional TV screens was halved, while the time spent watching on smartphones increased by 85%. The fact that teenagers, the future leaders, use the most data on smartphones for video viewing signifies that they are the most important generation for telecommunications operators to keep a close eye on.

In 2016, we are passing the long-awaited milestone of commercial LTE networks supporting a maximum data downlink speed of 1Gbps. Devices supporting 1Gbps will rapidly spread to other regions, starting with Korea, the United States, Japan, and China in the second half of 2016. Mobile users will be able to enjoy content in a very short time thanks to this enhanced technology, which will enable downlink speeds that are more than two-thirds faster than today's fastest speeds.

Teenagers' use of cellular data to watch videos on smartphones increased by 127% over 15 months.

Global Growth Story: Mobile broadband subscriptions will quadruple in the Middle East and Africa between 2015 and 2021; mobile data traffic will grow 15-fold in India by 2021, and mobile traffic in the U.S. will increase by about 50% in 2016 alone, despite it being the most mature market.

Continuous growth of data traffic: Between the first quarter of 2015 and the first quarter of 2016, global mobile data traffic increased by 60% due to the increase in smartphone subscriptions and data consumption per subscriber. By the end of 2021, approximately 90% of mobile data traffic will be generated by smartphones.

Rapid growth in LTE subscriptions during Q1 2016: Driven by demand for improved user experiences and faster networks, 150 million new subscriptions were added during the first quarter, bringing the total number of LTE subscriptions worldwide to 1.2 billion. LTE networks with a maximum speed of 1 Gbps are expected to be commercialized within 2016.

Spectrum harmonization needed among countries planning early 5G implementation: 5G is expected to launch sooner than anticipated, and spectrum harmonization is needed among countries planning early implementation. It must be done separately from the WRC-19 process, which focuses on spectrum for commercial 5G implementation after 2020.