At seven million, India accounted for the most net addition of mobile subscriptions in the quarter ending on June 30, a report released Tuesday showed. It was followed by five million in China and three million in the USA.
According to the Ericsson Mobility Report, 40 million new subscribers were globally added in the quarter. The global mobile subscription penetration stood at 105 per cent. In India, it was 79 per cent. The highest penetration was recorded in central and eastern Europe at 138 per cent followed by 129 per cent in western Europe and 116 per cent in west Asia.
The report, which was an update of the report published in June, further stated that the number of 5G subscriptions at the end of the April-June quarter stood at 1.3 billion.
The number of 4G subscriptions increased by 11 million, totalling 5.2 billion and representing 62 per cent of all mobile subscriptions globally.
Mobile broadband subscriptions grew by about 100 million in the quarter, totalling 7.4 billion, a year-on-year increase of five per cent. Mobile broadband now accounts for 88 per cent of all mobile subscriptions.
WCDMA/HSPA subscriptions declined by 85 million, and GSM/EDGE-only subscriptions dropped by 59 million during the quarter. Other technologies fell by about two million.
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Moreover, total mobile data traffic grew by 33 per cent between the June quarter of 2022 and 2023. The quarter-on-quarter growth was recorded at a lower 6 per cent.
According to the report, traffic growth is driven by the continued strong uptake of smartphone subscriptions and an increasing average data volume per subscription fueled by data-intensive services such as video.
In June, the report had said that pan-Indian availability of 5G networks in India by the end of 2023/early 2024 will further fuel growth.
"5G subscriptions are expected to reach 700 million and are estimated to account for 57 per cent of mobile subscriptions in the region by the end of 2028," it said.