As mobile subscriptions continue to increase rapidly around the world due to the growth of technology which is changing the way we do things, the latest Mobility report released by Ericsson has revealed some interesting facts on the growth of mobile and its future impact on the world.
According to the report, Nigeria had the fifth largest mobile subscription growth in the world in the first quarter of 2017, with over 3 million new subscriptions even as the number of mobile subscriptions surpass the number of the country’s population, trailing behind India who grew the most in terms of net additions during the quarter with more that 43 million, China with more than 24 million, Indonesia with 10 million and Pakistan with 5 million respectively.
Rutger Reman, Managing Director, Ericsson Nigeria who discussed the intriguing findings of the report with select journalists in Lagos recently, said that; “Mobile subscriptions keep growing steadily and are currently growing by around 25 percent year on year, increasing by approximately 240 million in the first quarter of 2017 alone.
“The total number of mobile broadband subscriptions around the world is now around 4.6 billion,” Reman said.
This of course is majorly as a result of increased smartphone ownership which as in turn increased internet penetration.
Experts in the Information Communication Technology (ICT) industry affirm that the growth of smartphones in Nigeria as a result of lower cost led to the increase oil internet penetration to 53 percent (97.2 million users) up from the 46.1 percent (86.3 million users) in 2015.
The June 2017 Ericsson Mobility report found that 250 million new subscriptions were added to Long Term Evolution (LTE) subscriptions during Q1 2017, to reach a total of around 2.1 billion globally while the net addition for WCDMA/HSPA was around 10 million subscriptions during the quarter.
Explaining why this was so, Rutger Reman confirmed that the growth was due to a smartphone revolution around the world.
“Of all subscriptions, 55 percent are now for smartphones, and in Q1, smartphones accounted for 80 percent of all mobile phones sold in the world.
Interestingly, Juliet Anammah, Chief Executive Officer, Jumia Nigeria, had told BusinessDay earlier this year, during the release of the Jumia White paper report, that the steady growth of mobile subscription in the country was no surprise as Nigeria had joined the league of mobile first nations.
“We have seen over the years that smartphone adoption has continued to grow over the years.The mobile phone category on our online platform is the most popular category among Nigerian shoppers on Jumia, both in terms of the number of items sold and in terms of revenue generated,” Anammah said.
Although the Ericsson report accounted for 107 million new mobile subscription globally in Q1 2017, it said the increase is largely due to factors such as, inactive subscriptions, multiple device ownership or optimisation of subscriptions for different types of calls. As a result, the number of subscribers which currently stands at around 5.2 billion is lower than the 7.6 billion number of subscriptions as at the end of Q1 2017.”
In terms of the future outlook for mobile subscriptions, the number of 5G subscriptions is forecast to exceed half a billion by the end of 2022.
“Early 5G developments are anticipated in several markets. Five years from now, the number of 5g subscriptions is forecast to reach more than 500 million,” the report said.
Explaining the reason for the future projection, Rutger Reman said that; “Acceleration of 5G New Radio (NR) standardisation will enable large scale trials and deployments of 5G in 2019.
If Nigeria can put the processes for 4G in place successfully, rolling out 5G will be much easier when the time comes, as it has become paramount for the country to develop on a faster pace and move on with changing times and technologies,” Reman added.
Jumoke Akiyode
