India added over 13 million telephone subscribers in July-September: report

Telecom companies in India added over 13 million mobile subscribers in July-September of 2015, according to Ericsson. The November 2015 edition of Ericsson Mobility Report said every second, a mobile connection was getting activated in India.
 
"Global mobile subscriptions are growing around 5 per cent year-on-year. India grew the most in terms of net additions during the quarter (a gain of 13 million), followed by China (7 million), the US (6 million), Myanmar (5 million), and Nigeria (4 million)," the report by the telecom gear maker said.

The period saw the total number of mobile subscriptions hit 7.3 billion across the world, which included 87 million new subscriptions. The report referred various data sources and verified the same with its internal assessment.
 
The global study found smart phones made up close to 75 per cent of all mobile phones sold in the quarter, as against around 70 per cent a year ago.

"By 2016, the number of Smartphone subscription will surpass those for basic phones. Some 85 per cent of all subscriptions will be for mobile broadband by the end of 2021," according to the report.

According to the report, close competitors like Africa and China fared much better at 81 per cent and 93 per cent penetration, respectively. The Asia-Pacific region excluding India and China had mobile penetration of 106 per cent.
 
According to commentators, India's emergence as among fastest growing mobile markets, would boost mobile data consumption, prompting telecom operators to chart out new monthly data plans for their consumers.

The report projected that in the next 5 years, monthly Smartphone data consumption per active subscription in North America (22 GB) would be 1.2 times that of Western Europe (18 GB) and 3 times that of Asia Pacific (7 GB). The Asia Pacific region would, however, account for the largest share of total Smartphone traffic in 2021, due to growth in the number of subscriptions.

The increase in data consumption would essentially be driven by increase in 4G-LTE smart phones. The LTE subscriptions hit 850 million and are set to reach first billion during 2015.