Ericsson Mobility Report: 5G subscriptions in Q2 2022 are 690 million (vs. 8.3 billion total mobile users)

According to the latest Ericsson Mobility Report, total mobile subscriptions increased by 52 million to reach 8.3 billion.

Global 5G subscriptions grew by 70 million in the second quarter of 2022, reaching 690 million in the second quarter of 2022, according to Ericsson.  Despite the challenges and obstacles, 5G adoption is progressing faster than 4G (we disagree).

Ericsson’s Mobility Report also details how people are using their mobile phones, with mobile data usage increasing dramatically year-on-year. Between Q2 2021 and Q2 2022, network data traffic increased by 39%. The growth from Q1 2022 to Q2 2022 was also 8%.

Ericsson attributes the growth to increased consumption of media on mobile devices driven by faster speeds offered by 5G.  Here are the report’s highlights:

•In Q2 2022, the total number of mobile subscriptions was around 8.3 billion, with a net addition of 52 million subscriptions during the quarter.  Mobile broadband accounts for 86 percent of all mobile subscriptions.

• 5G subscriptions total 690 million (but in China, there are many 5G plan subscribers who can only get 4G service).

• China accounted for the most net additions during the quarter (+10 million), followed by India (+7 million) and Indonesia (+4 million).

• Global mobile subscription penetration was 106 percent.  That means more than one mobile device per person!

• The number of mobile broadband subscriptions grew by about 100 million in the quarter to reach 7.2 billion, a year-on-year increase of 6 percent. Mobile broadband now accounts for 86 percent of all mobile subscriptions.

• The number of unique mobile subscribers is 6.1 billion. The difference between the number of subscriptions and the number of subscribers is due to inactive subscriptions, multiple device ownership and/or the optimization of subscriptions for different types of calls.

• 5G subscriptions grew by 70 million during the quarter, lifting the total to 690 million. Meanwhile, 218 communications service providers have launched commercial 5G services and 24 have launched 5G standalone (SA) networks.

• 4G subscriptions increased by 77 million to around 5 billion, representing 60 percent of all mobile subscriptions, while WCDMA/HSPA subscriptions declined by 41 million. GSM/EDGE-only subscriptions dropped by 48 million during the quarter, and other technologies3 decreased by about 6 million.

Mobile network data traffic grew 39 percent between Q2 2021 and Q2 2022 and reached 100ExaBytes per month.  The quarter-on-quarter mobile network data traffic growth between Q1 2022 and Q2 2022 was 8 percent. Total monthly global mobile network data traffic reached 100EB. Over the long term, traffic5 growth is driven by both the rising number of smartphone subscriptions and an increasing average data volume per subscription, fueled primarily by increased viewing of video content. There are large differences in traffic levels between markets, regions and service providers.

References:

https://www.ericsson.com/en/reports-and-papers/mobility-report

https://www.ericsson.com/4a4be7/assets/local/reports-papers/mobility-report/documents/2022/ericsson-mobility-report-q2-2022.pdf

One thought on “Ericsson Mobility Report: 5G subscriptions in Q2 2022 are 690 million (vs. 8.3 billion total mobile users)

  1. India and China now account for nearly 50 per cent of the global mobile traffic, compared to their 12 per cent share 10 years ago. The growth in digital infrastructure has led to a surge in Internet appetite in these countries.

    In 2012, India contributed to only 2 per cent of the world’s mobile data traffic and China held a 10 per cent share, while the western market accounted for 75 per cent of the global market share. The two Asian tigers, India and China, grew massively in a span of two years. According to the latest data for 2022, India holds a 21 per cent share of the global mobile data traffic and China 27 per cent, while the western markets of North America and Europe account for only a quarter of the global traffic for mobile data services.

    India has the highest mobile data consumption rate at 12 GB/user a month in the world, and the country is adding as many as 25 million new smartphone users every quarter. According to OoKla, between September and October, India recorded the highest median mobile download speed in the last 13 months (from 13.87 Mbps in September to 16.50 Mbps).

    The proliferation of digital infrastructure and online services have a huge role to play in these trends, especially for India. Within this decade, telecom operators such as Reliance Jio reduced the cost of data massively, allowing more and more people to come online using 4G services. Indian telcos continue to have the lowest monthly ARPUs in the world at $2.5 per month.

    Consumer tech start-ups, entertainment services and digital financial inclusion initiatives by the government (UPI) have also contributed to the data consumption boom. The sheer population of India also massively contributes to these numbers.

    Sanchit Vir Gogia, Chief Analyst & CEO at Greyhound Research, said: “The kind of scale that consumer mobility enjoys in India is unlike anywhere else in the world. Consumer-facing businesses have to cater to a massive scale. Moreover, as devices and data plans become cheaper, more and more customers are moving from 2G to 4G services. The sheer depth of variety among Indian consumers is also massively increasing demand in the country, as brands and marketers jump to cater to the demand in every vernacular.”

    SOURCE: THG Publishing Pvt. Ltd.

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