16 billion connected devices forecast to join the Internet of Things by the end of 2021
Smartphone subscriptions to surpass those for basic phones in Q3 this year
Teenage use of cellular data for smartphone video grew 127 percent in just 15 months
The latest edition of the Ericsson (NASDAQ: ERIC) Mobility Report, published today, reveals that the Internet of Things (IoT) is set to overtake mobile phones as the largest category of connected device by 2018.
Between 2015 and 2021, the number of IoT connected devices is expected to grow 23 percent annually, of which cellular IoT is forecast to have the highest growth rate. Of the 28 billion total devices that will be connected by 2021, close to 16 billion will be IoT devices.
Western Europe will lead the way in adding IoT connections - the number of IoT devices in this market is projected to grow 400 percent by 2021. This will principally be driven by regulatory requirements, for example for intelligent utility meters, and a growing demand for connected cars including the EU e-call directive to be implemented in 2018.
Rima Qureshi, Senior Vice President & Chief Strategy Officer, Ericsson, says: IoT is now accelerating as device costs fall and innovative applications emerge. From 2020, commercial deployment of 5G networks will provide additional capabilities that are critical for IoT, such as network slicing and the capacity to connect exponentially more devices than is possible today.
Smartphone subscriptions continue to increase and are forecast to surpass those for basic phones in Q3 this year. By 2021, smartphone subscriptions will almost double from 3.4 billion to 6.3 billion. Also revealed in the report, there are now 5 billion mobile subscribers - unique users - in the world today, which is testament to the phenomenal growth of mobile technology in a relatively short period of time.
Detailed in the report is a dramatic shift in teen viewing habits: use of cellular data for smartphone video grew 127 percent in just 15 months (2014-15). Over a period of four years (2011-15) there has been a 50 percent drop in the time teens spend watching TV/video on a TV screen, and in contrast an 85 percent increase in those viewing TV/video on a smartphone. This, and the fact that the upcoming generation of mobile users are the heaviest consumers of data for smartphone video streaming (Wi-Fi and cellular combined), makes them the most important group for cellular operators to monitor.
In 2016, a long anticipated milestone is being passed with commercial LTE networks supporting downlink peak data speeds of 1 Gbps. Devices that support 1 Gbps are expected in the second half of 2016, initially in markets such as Japan, US, South Korea and China, but rapidly spreading to other regions. Mobile users will enjoy extremely fast time to content thanks to this enhanced technology, which will enable up to two thirds faster download speeds compared with the fastest technology available today.
Further highlights from the Ericsson Mobility Report include:
A global growth story: mobile broadband subscriptions will grow fourfold in the Middle East and Africa between 2015 and 2021; mobile data traffic in India will grow fifteen times by 2021; and despite being the most mature market, mobile traffic in North America will grow 50 percent in 2016 alone.
Data traffic continues unabated growth: global mobile data traffic grew 60 percent between Q1 2015 and Q1 2016, due to rising numbers of smartphone subscriptions and increasing data consumption per subscriber. By the end of 2021, around 90 percent of mobile data traffic will be from smartphones.
LTE subscriptions grew at a high rate during Q1 2016: there were 150 million new subscriptions during the quarter - driven by demand for improved user experience and faster networks - reaching a total of 1.2 billion worldwide. LTE peak data speeds of 1 Gbps are anticipated to be commercially available in 2016.
Additional spectrum harmonization needed between countries planning early 5G deployment: 5G is expected to start more quickly than anticipated, and spectrum harmonization is needed between countries planning early roll-outs. This is in addition to the current process for WRC-19, which focuses on spectrum for commercial 5G deployments beyond 2020.
The Ericsson Mobility Report is one of the leading analyses of mobile data traffic available, providing in-depth measurements from live networks spread around the globe. The report uses these measurements and analysis, together with internal forecasts and other relevant studies, to provide insights into current traffic and market trends in the Networked Society.
The Traffic Exploration Tool, which accompanies the report, can be used to create customized graphs and tables. The information can be filtered by region, subscription, technology, traffic and device type.
The report defines a connected device as a physical object that has an IP stack enabling two-way communication over a network interface.
NOTES TO EDITORS
The full Ericsson Mobility Report, Traffic Exploration Tool and regional reports for North America, South East Asia & Oceania, India (published June 7), and North East Asia (published at a later date) can be downloaded at www.ericsson.com/mobility-report
Biography and photos of Rima Qureshi
For media kits, backgrounders and high-resolution photos, please visit www.ericsson.com/press
Ericsson is the driving force behind the Networked Society - a world leader in communications technology and services. Our long-term relationships with every major telecom operator in the world allow people, business and society to fulfill their potential and create a more sustainable future.
Our services, software and infrastructure - especially in mobility, broadband and the cloud - are enabling the telecom industry and other sectors to do better business, increa
Most recent headlines
02/01/2025
NextGen TV, aka ATSC 3.0, continued to advance in 2024, with some notable developments and renewed hopes that a deregulatory-minded Federal Communications Commi...
02/01/2025
Artificial intelligence is undoubtedly the hottest topic in the tech industry today, displaying all the excitement, apprehension and hype of the early days of t...
02/01/2025
STAMFORD, Conn. NBC Sports said 2024 was its best year in terms of ratings since 2016. Its success was fueled by the Paris Summer Olympics as well as its NFL co...
02/01/2025
MSG Networks has been dropped from Altice USA's Optimum-branded pay TV offerings after the operator and the regional sports provider were unable to reach a ...
02/01/2025
How color film and analog color TV works with bluescreen / chromakey
Graham Quince January 2, 2025
0 Comments
A deep dive into VFX History looking at ...
02/01/2025
Hulu Series Interior Chinatown Graded with DaVinci Resolve Studio
Brie Clayton January 2, 2025
0 Comments
Colorist Aidan Stanford delivers complex gra...
02/01/2025
Bulk Font Replacement in Premiere Pro
Andy Ford January 2, 2025
0 Comments
If you want to change the font of multiple text layers in Premiere Pro, the...
02/01/2025
Streaming media's impact on the media and entertainment industry continued to widen in 2024, as more sports rights moved to streaming platforms and the rapi...
02/01/2025
ATLANTA The board of directors for Gray Television Inc. has unanimously voted to change the company's name to Gray Media, Inc. effective Jan. 1....
02/01/2025
Official television and film archives exist to preserve the history and creativity of media. But even these formal institutions do not contain everything that h...
02/01/2025
Welsh succeeds Renard Jenkins, who has reached the end of his two-year tenure in the role
By Jenny Priestley
Published: January 2, 2025
Welsh succeeds Ren...
02/01/2025
Creator Economy Isn't Really Like Film/Show Entertainment
Andy Marken January 1, 2025
0 Comments
Come on Barry, you're good at this sort of s...
02/01/2025
Blackmagic Design Announces New Lower Price for Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera ...
02/01/2025
Hollywood Lighting Hacks: Big Looks, Tiny Budget
Sean Alami January 1, 2025
0 Comments
Discover how to create stunning Hollywood-style lighting using ...
02/01/2025
A fresh start to 2025 with new faces, familiar voices and plenty of Irish music ...
02/01/2025
GeForce NOW is kicking off 2025 by delivering 14 games to the cloud this month, with two available to stream this week so members can get started on their New Y...
01/01/2025
Marcy Lefkovitz, Dalet SVP product innovation, details the findings of the companys report into the future of newsrooms, including leveraging AI, optimising mul...
31/12/2024
Rashad Frett shares a moment with Michelle Satter at the 2023 Directors Lab. Pho...
31/12/2024
What's Ahead in 2025? OWC's Larry O'Connor Offers Some Bold Predicti...
31/12/2024
Blackmagic Design Announces New Features for Blackmagic Cloud
Brie Clayton December 31, 2024
0 Comments
New thumbnail icon view, clip metadata inspect...
31/12/2024
5 Features in DaVinci Resolve You're Not Using (But You Should Be)
Kasia Jarco December 31, 2024
0 Comments
In this video we are going to talk abo...
31/12/2024
Back to All News
NFL Christmas Day Games on Netflix Average Over 30 Million Global Viewers
Entertainment
31 December 2024
Global
Link copied to clipboard
...
31/12/2024
Back to All News
Squid Game' Season 2 Smashes Top 10 Records as Millions W...
30/12/2024
Leaving Thomson after 21 years, former Managing Director David Quin reflects on a career spent navigating the shifting sands of global media development. From r...
30/12/2024
[Pictured: a still from Love Lies Bleeding, one of the 100 Sundance-supported titles that opened to wider audiences in 2024]...
30/12/2024
Digital Domain Creates Groundbreaking VFX for Venom: The Last Dance, Bringing ...
30/12/2024
Internet Giant GMP Builds Tokyo Virtual Event Space with URSA Broadcast G2
Brie Clayton December 30, 2024
0 Comments
Blackmagic URSA Broadcast G2 and ...
30/12/2024
Renderboxes launches Photon, a no-compromise transportable high-performance work...
30/12/2024
Shinobi II Monitor Supports Canon, Sony, Nikon - Touch to Focus with New Feature...
30/12/2024
30 Dec 2024
In a Groundbreaking Agreement, VEON and Starlink to Bring Starlink ...
30/12/2024
The pace of technology innovation has accelerated in the past year, most dramati...
29/12/2024
Gyeongnam Culture and Arts Foundation (GCAF), an active promotor of cultural and artistic diversity, has chosen Ikegami UHK-X700 camera chains for integration i...
27/12/2024
After starting 2024 with hopes that the transition to streaming might finally produce a more stable, profitable businesses, the media and entertainment industry...
27/12/2024
Broadcasters ended the year with hopes and fears about how the federal government will regulate the TV industry in 2025. While the incoming Trump administration...
27/12/2024
NVIDIA's AI Podcast gives listeners the inside scoop on the ways AI is transforming nearly every industry. Since the show's debut in 2016, it's gar...
26/12/2024
Talking about artificial intelligence in 2024 is akin to talking about the internet in 1994 everyone's excited about it and thinks it will have an enormous ...
26/12/2024
Back to All News
Netflix NFL Christmas Gameday Reaches 65 Million US Viewers
Entertainment
26 December 2024
GlobalUnited States
Link copied to clipboard
U...
26/12/2024
Back to All News
Check Out All the Must-See Trailers From Netflix's NFL Chr...
26/12/2024
Back to All News
Beyonc Delivers Epic Gift of a Halftime Performance "Beyonc...
26/12/2024
Back to All News
Get in the Game With Squid Game' Season 2 Complete Coverage Guide
Entertainment
26 December 2024
Global
Link copied to clipboard
Are...
26/12/2024
This GFN Thursday wraps up another incredible year for cloud gaming. Take a look back at the top games and new features that made 2024 a standout for GeForce NO...
24/12/2024
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF) is calling for applications from South African film and television filmmakers to be part of the NFVF's delegat...
24/12/2024
WASHINGTON, D.C. The Federal Communications Commission Enforcement Bureau said Paramount Global is being fined $244,952 for violations of emergency alerting rul...
24/12/2024
NEW YORK Carnegie Hall's video-streaming channel, Carnegie Hall+, said it will celebrate the holiday season by offering a wide selection of holiday-themed o...
24/12/2024
LOS ANGELES PlayersTV, an athlete and fan-owned media company, has announced the acquisition of Cloud Media Center, an AI-driven sports adtech and media distrib...
24/12/2024
The Best Playlists of 2024 The top playlists we created in 2024, from dad rock to dembow.
By
Tara Bellucci
December 23, 2024
Image by Kelly Davidson
Tak...
24/12/2024
Editor's note: This post is part of the AI Decoded series, which demystifies AI by making the technology more accessible, and showcases new hardware, softwa...
23/12/2024
At IBC2024, Grass Valley CTO Ian Fletcher told attendees at GV Forum that broadcast is now an IT industry. During our discussions at the show, TVBEurope heard v...
23/12/2024
According to co-director Nick Park, the production team embraced technology to help create the iconic duos latest adventure
By Jenny Priestley
Published: Dec...
16 billion connected devices forecast to join the Internet of Things by the end of 2021 
