Ericsson, the world's top mobile network equipment maker, expects a tenfold surge in mobile data traffic between 2015 and 2021, while in June it forecast an eightfold growth between 2014 and 2020.
"Based on recent network measurements, a stronger than
anticipated growth of average data traffic consumption per user resulted in a significant upward adjustment of our forecast," Ericsson said.
Video is expected to increase its share of total mobile traffic in 2021 to 70 percent, up from around 50 percent in 2015, Ericsson said.
In its semi-annual Mobility Report, Ericsson said it expected there to be 6.4 billion smartphone subscriptions globally by the end of 2021, up from 3.4 billion in 2015, due to greater affordability in developing markets.
It repeated its expectation that fifth-generation mobile telephony will be commercially deployed in 2020.
"In 2021, South Korea, Japan, China and the US are expected to have the fastest uptake of 5G subscriptions," Ericsson said.
The new generation of mobile phone technology is expected not only to bring higher data speeds, but also to better accommodate a wide variety of connected devices.For the latest tech news and reviews, follow Gadgets 360 on X, Facebook, WhatsApp, Threads and Google News. For the latest videos on gadgets and tech, subscribe to our YouTube channel. If you want to know everything about top influencers, follow our in-house Who'sThat360 on Instagram and YouTube.