(MENAFN- Khaleej Times) The number of mobile subscriptions in the middle east and africa (mea) region will grow from 1.
mobile penetration in the middle east is currently at 107 per cent with 365 million mobile subscriptions.
the report further revealed that by 2019 about 50 percent of handset subscriptions in the middle east and africa will be for smartphones which will drive data traffic growth. it said there is an expected 11-fold increase in data traffic in the central europe middle east and africa region between 2013 and 2019 second only to growth anticipated in the asia pacific region.
“there is a phenomenal growth in the mea region as the development of networks economic growth and opportunities create more connectivity potential in sub-saharan africa in particular while the uptake of smart devices continues to increase in the middle east to drive lte figures higher. as cities around the region work progressively towards smart city status this will continue to build upon the level of m2m connectivity transporting mea’s residents into the networked society” teemu salmi vice-president and head of operations ericsson me and north east africa said.
the report said there are 288 lte networks commercially launched in 104 countries. this number continues to grow and it is expected that more than 65 percent of the world’s population will be covered by lte in 2019.
it also pointed out that machine-to-machine (m2m) transformation is now evident for the first time as the global number of active cellular m2m devices will increase 3-4 times by 2019 from 200 million at the end of 2013. while the majority of cellular m2m devices today are still gsm-only that is expected to shift by 2016 when 3g/4g will represent the majority of active cellular m2m subscriptions.
next year the total number of mobile subscriptions will exceed the world’s population. mobile subscriptions have grown by seven per cent year-over-year with 120 million net additions in first quarter alone. mobile broadband subscriptions also continue to grow and will reach 7.6 billion by the end of 2019 representing more than 80 per cent of total mobile subscriptions.
in two years’ time in 2016 the number of smartphone subscriptions will exceed those for basic phones and by 2019 the number of smartphone subscriptions is expected to reach 5.6 billion. in europe the number of smartphone subscriptions will reach about 765 million in 2019 and thereby exceed the population number.
— muzaffarrizvi?khaleejtimes.com
Legal Disclaimer:
MENAFN provides the information “as is” without warranty of any kind. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information contained in this article. If you have any complaints or copyright issues related to this article, kindly contact the provider above.