Ericsson, a technology and communication services provider, on Tuesday, disclosed that mobile internet usage would increase twice the global rate in sub- Saharan Africa by 2019.
In the Ericsson Mobility Report signed by Kamar Abass, the company’s country manager, the communication services provider said the number of users would skyrocket to 9.2 billion and 82.3 per cent of the populace would be mobile broadband.
He said that the Sub-Saharan African ongoing data revolution, with traffic growth, had doubled in the past year.
Abass also predicted 930 million mobile subscriptions in Sub-Saharan Africa by the end of 2019, with 557 million smart phone and 710 million broadband subscriptions
The country manager explained that the rise of social media, content-rich apps and
video content accessed from a new range of cheaper smart phones had prompted the rise.
“Sub-Saharan Africa is currently undergoing a mobile digital revolution with consumers, networks and even media companies wakening up the possibilities of 3G and 4G technology.
“We have seen the trend emerging over a few years but in the past 12 months the digital traffic has increased by over 100 per cent forcing us to revise our existing predictions.
“In the next five years, voice call traffic in Sub-Saharan Africa will double, and there will be an explosion in mobile data with growing 20 times between 2013 and 2019,’’ he said.
By 2019 the report predicted that 75 per cent of mobile subscriptions would be internet inclusive (3G or 4G).
Abass revealed that in June, 2014, phone users accessed 76,000 TB (terabyte) of data per month, double the 2013 figure of 37,500 TB per month.
“In 2015 the figures are expected to double again with mobile phone users accessing 147,000 TB per month.
NAN
