In the June quarter, India added the highest number of mobile subscribers worldwide, says a report by the Ericsson Mobility

The number of global 5G subscriptions at the end of the April-June quarter stood at 1.3 billion. At seven million, India accounted for the largest net addition of mobile subscriptions in the quarter ending on June 30, 2023.

According to the Ericsson Mobility Report, the quarter saw a global increase of 40 million new users. The prevalence of mobile subscriptions worldwide was 105%. The figure was 79% in India and Central and Eastern Europe reported the highest penetration at 138%, followed by Western Europe at 129% and West Asia at 116%.

11 million more 4G subscribers were added, bringing the total to 5.2 billion, or 62% of all mobile subscriptions worldwide. The number of mobile broadband subscriptions increased by nearly 100 million during the quarter, reaching 7.4 billion, a 5% rise over the previous year. Approximately 88% of all mobile subscriptions are now for mobile broadband.

Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA) and High-Speed Packet Access (HSPA) subscriptions declined by 85 million, and Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) and Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution (EDGE)-only subscriptions dropped by 59 million during the quarter. Other technologies fell by about two million.

The report further stated that the traffic growth is driven by the continued strong uptake of smartphone subscriptions and an increasing average data volume per subscription, fuelled by data-intensive services such as video. 5G subscriptions are expected to reach 700 million and are estimated to account for 57% of mobile subscriptions in the region by the end of 2028.

Disclaimer: This information has been collected through secondary research and IBEF is not responsible for any errors in the same.