Data shows growth in 5G subscriptions: +154 million in the last quarter of 2023
This week Ericsson has published an update of the Mobility Report with the data recorded at the end of 2023.
The year ended with a number of SIMs in the world approaching 8.5 billion, with a net growth of 39 million in the last quarter of 2023 alone.
The largest quarterly contribution comes from India (+10 million), followed by China (+4 million) and the United States (+3 million). It is now a fact that there are more SIMs than people, with a penetration rate of 105%. The number of mobile broadband subscriptions grew by approximately 90 million in the final quarter of 2023, to a total of 7.6 billion, an increase of 5% compared to the previous year. Mobile broadband now accounts for 89% of all mobile subscriptions.
The number of unique mobile subscribers is 6.4 billion. The gap between unique users and total SIMs is largely due to the presence of multiple SIMs per person or inactive subscriptions.
The decline of 4G for the first time
As for cellular technology used to access the Internet on the move, according to Ericsson’s new Mobility Report, 4G subscriptions are decreasing for the first time. The total decreased by 12 million during the quarter to a total of approximately 5.1 billion, representing 61% of all mobile subscriptions. Subscriptions to the WCDMA/HSPA (41 million less) and GSM/EDGE (55 million less) networks also decreased in the last quarter of 2023.
Instead, there continues to be an increase in the number of 5G subscriptions – tied to a 5G device – which grew by 154 million during the quarter, bringing the total to almost 1.6 billion or 19% of all mobile subscriptions.
Commercial 5G service providers are increasing
More than 290 communications service providers have launched commercial 5G services, and more than 40 have deployed or launched standalone (SA) 5G networks.
Mobile Internet continues to grow
Mobile Internet traffic grew in the last quarter by approximately 6%.
The growth in traffic is due to the continued and strong diffusion of smartphone subscriptions and the increase in the average volume of data per subscription, fueled by data-intensive services such as video.