(MENAFN- Khaleej Times)Mobile data traffic in the Middle East and North East Africa region is expected to grow 14 times between 2014 to 2020 while globally data will expand nine times a new report has revealed.
The inaugural appendix to the Ericsson Mobility Report for the Middle East and North East Africa reveals that despite the market being extremely varied with regards to information and communications technology (ICT) adoption and mobile penetration the proliferation of mobile technologies continues at a rapid pace. Speaking at a media briefing on Tuesday Patrik Melander head of the customer unit for the GCC and Pakistan at Ericsson said that 40 per cent of the world's mobile traffic passes through Ericsson's network. He noted that while smartphone penetration rates were considerably high in the UAE LTE subscriptions were at less than 10 per cent. "Globally we see that a user consumes three to five times more data with an LTE susbscription as compared to 3G. These numbers matter because they drive traffic and revenues for operators if they use best practices on how to monetise data" he said. The Ericsson report also categorised the GCC market as one of the 'advanced' markets. These countries are characterised by advanced mobile technologies innovative services high data consumption and fierce competition as well as having the highest GDP per capita across the region. Around 40 per cent of the countries in the region have launched LTE technology; however it only accounts for one per cent of global subscriptions most of which are concentrated in Gulf countries. These countries especially Qatar and the UAE have some of the highest smartphone adoption rates in the world. This segment is also more advanced in its usage of the Internet across different devices. Melander also noted that the potential for growth especially in the UAE was "astronomical". The region had around 680 million mobile subscriptions at the end of 2014. Between 2014 and 2020 it is forecast that mobile subscriptions will grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of six per cent amounting to 970 million. By 2020 the amount of data used monthly by each active smartphone will increase substantially from an average of 0.8GB in 2014 to approximately 5GB. LTEs are expected to triple in 2015 alone and surpass 210 million by 2020 equating to around 20 per cent of all mobile subscriptions. Rafiah Ibrahim president of Ericsson - Middle East and East Africa said: "The ICT transformation has been phenomenal across the entire region. As an advanced market the GCC is taking significant steps towards life in the networked society especially with the path it's taking towards its Smart City vision which is prominent in the UAE. Convenience and usability often determine how users perform a particular task in this region and connectivity is now part of the mainstream." -
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