Bangkok--9 Jul--Ericsson
- Region’s youth population among the largest in the world and is driving the uptake of apps, smartphones and mobile data services
- Smartphone subscriptions to grow about 5 times by 2019 and will make up more than half of total mobile subscriptions in the region
- Mobile data traffic in the region will grow by more than 10 times between 2013 and 2019
- 4G/LTE subscriptions currently concentrated in developed markets, but developing markets to gain momentum in the next five years
Ericsson releases its first appendix to the Ericsson Mobility Report that specifically covers the South East Asia and Oceania region. The appendix illustrates the differences across the region, including smartphone uptake, access to LTE, and network performance.
Three key trends driving ICT growth in the region are youth culture, urbanization and the rise of smartphones. The region’s youth population of more than 170 million is among the largest globally.
Camilla Vautier, President of Ericsson Thailand, says: “Youth are active users of apps, especially messaging apps, and in the Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia nearly one-third of the population is aged 10-24. In these countries we also observe that the smartphone is the primary device for internet access and as smartphones become cheaper, more consumers will be able to enjoy the benefits of connectivity.
“Today, smartphone penetration ranges from around 20 percent for developing markets to more than 60 percent for advanced markets. As smartphone subscriptions are expected to grow about 5 times, there will be more than 700 million smartphone subscriptions in the region by 2019 and will constitute more than half of its expected 1.3 billion total mobile subscriptions.”
As usage of apps and services increases, mobile data traffic will grow by more than 10 times between 2013 and 2019. Camilla says: “This means there is a need to create high performing networks to keep up with more complex user demands and support increasing mobile data consumption.”
Australia and Singapore, both mature ICT markets, represent almost all of the 20 million LTE subscriptions that the region will have by the end of 2014. Australia, closely followed by Singapore has the best in class networks in the region based on median throughput network speeds.
4G/LTE subscriptions are currently concentrated in developed markets, but developing markets will gain momentum in the next five years. By the end of 2019, as networks are deployed in more countries, LTE subscription growth is expected to reach around 230 million subscriptions, bringing LTE penetration for the region to around 20 percent.
In Ericsson’s global Mobility Report, three countries in the region - Indonesia, Thailand and Bangladesh - recorded among the top 5 highest net additions globally for mobile subscriptions in the first quarter 2014.
The appendix for the South East Asia and Oceania region is published by Ericsson in conjunction with its recently-released Ericsson Mobility Report, which includes key global trends on Machine-to-Machine subscriptions, smartphone subscriptions, and LTE uptake.
Key interested information from the Ericsson Mobility Report is:
- The number of mobile subscriptions worldwide has grown approximately 7 percent year-on-year during Q1 2014. Just in Q1 2014 there were 120 million net additions of mobile subscriptions.
- The top 5 countries by net addition accounted for more than 50% of new mobile subscriptions in Q1 2014 (India, + 28 mn, China,+19 mn, Indonesia, +7 mn, Thailand, +6 mn, Bangladesh, + 4 mn)
- As of Q1 2014, there were around 6.8 billion mobile subscriptions and that number is forecast to reach around 9.2 billion in 2019.
- Global mobile broadband subscriptions reached 2.3 billion in Q1 2014 and will reach 7.6 billion in 2019.
- Around 65% of all mobile phones sold in Q1 2014 were smartphones, compared to around 50% during Q1 2013
- Smartphone traffic will grow around 10 times between 2013 and 2019.
- LTE subscriptions have now reached 240 million subscriptions and will exceed 1 billion subscriptions in 2017. Increase is driven by network deployments, more capable devices and end-user demand for more data-intensive services, like video
- Around 75% of Asia Pacific subscriptions were 2G in 2013. In 2019, 80% of Asia Pacific mobile subscriptions will be 3G/4G.
- 13X growth in mobile video traffic between 2013 and 2019 and it will constitute more than 50% of all mobile data traffic in 2019.
- A smartphone user is expected to almost quadruple his/her mobile monthly data consumption between now and 2019. Monthly data usage for the average subscriber will reach 2.5 GB in 2019 (as compared to 650 MB in 2013).