INTERIM UPDATE

ERICSSON
MOBILITY
REPORT
This document is a scheduled update to the subscription
and mobile traffic data section in the Ericsson Mobility Report, SUBSCRIPTIONS
released in June 2017
Mobile broadband
To view or download a copy of the original report, subscriptions grew
please visit: www.ericsson.com/mobility-report
by around 260 million
during Q2 2017

TRAFFIC
Mobile data traffic
grew 67% between
Q2 2016 and Q2 2017

AUGUST 2017
Mobile subscriptions
q2 2017
In Q2 2017, the total number of mobile subscriptions was around
7.7 billion, with 92 million new subscriptions added during the quarter

Global mobile penetration was 103 percent. > T

 he number of unique mobile subscribers is around
Other interesting developments include: 5.3 billion. The difference between the number of
subscriptions and the number of subscribers is due to
> M
 obile subscriptions are growing around 6 percent
inactive subscriptions, multiple device ownership and/or
year-on-year
multiple subscriptions for different types of calls
> In terms of net additions, China grew the most in the
quarter (+19 million), followed by India (+17 million),
Indonesia (+7 million), Philippines (+7 million) and
Ghana (+4 million). In India, the strong subscription
growth seen during Q4 2016 and Q1 2017
returned to more moderate levels in Q2 2017
> T
 he number of mobile broadband subscriptions grew by
around 260 million in Q2 2017 to reach around 4.8 billion.
5.3 billion
This reflects a year-on-year increase of around 25 percent unique subscribers
> L
 TE subscriptions increased by approximately 260 million
to around 2.4 billion, while WCDMA/HSPA subscriptions
grew by around 30 million. The majority of 3G/4G
subscriptions have access to GSM/EDGE as a fallback.
GSM/EDGE-only subscriptions declined by 170 million, 1,550
and subscriptions for other technologies1 declined by
close to 30 million
1,365
> S
 ubscriptions associated with smartphones now account
for 56 percent of all mobile phone subscriptions. Around
370 million smartphones were sold in Q2, which equates 1,185
to 80 percent of all mobile phones sold in the quarter

1,015

690
APAC (excluding China and India)

580
520
420
395
Eastern Europe
Latin America

Central and
Western
America

Europe

Middle

Africa

China
North

India
East

Mobile subscriptions (millions)

1
Mainly CDMA2000 EV DO, TD-SCDMA and Mobile WiMAX

2 ERICSSON MOBILITY REPORT INTERIM UPDATE AUGUST 2017

New mobile subscriptions Q2 2017
25
24 million
million

19
million
92 million new subscriptions 17
globally in Q2 2017 million

Top 5 countries by
net additions Q2 2017

1 China +19 million

4
3 million 2 India +17 million
million
1 3 Indonesia +7 million
Middle

0 million
East

4 Philippines +7 million
million
5 Ghana +4 million
North
America

Latin

Europe

Eastern Europe
America

Western

Central and

Africa

APAC (excluding
China and India)

China

India
-1
million

103% global subscription

penetration in Q2 2017
Central and
142% Eastern Europe

124% Western Europe

104% North America 99% China

107% Latin America 116% Middle East 116% APAC*

*excluding China
and India

82% Africa 89% India

Subscription penetration (percent of population)

INTERIM UPDATE AUGUST 2017 ERICSSON MOBILITY REPORT 3

mobile traffic
q2 2017
Mobile data traffic continues to grow, and the graph below
shows total global monthly data and voice traffic from
Q2 2012 to Q2 20171. It depicts a strong and continued 12

growth in data traffic, while voice traffic increases in the

mid-single digits per year. This growth is driven by an Mobile data traffic grew
increase in smartphone subscriptions and average data 67% between Q2 2016
volume per subscription, fueled primarily by more viewing of
video content. Recent introductory free data traffic offers in
and Q2 2017
India have noticeably pushed up global traffic – whether this 10
trend continues as pricing is applied remains to be seen.

Data traffic grew around 10 percent quarter-on-quarter and

67 percent year-on-year. However, there are large differences
in traffic levels between markets, regions and operators.

Total (uplink + downlink) traffic (ExaBytes per month)

8

Voice 2
Data

0
Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2
2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017

Source: Ericsson traffic measurements (Q2 2017) 1

Traffic does not include DVB-H, Wi-Fi, or Mobile WiMAX. Voice does not include VoIP

The contents of this document are based on a number of theoretical dependencies and assumptions and Ericsson shall not be bound
by or liable for any statement, representation, undertaking or omission made in this document. Furthermore Ericsson may at any time
change the contents of this document at its sole discretion and shall not be liable for the consequences of such changes.

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