India Saw Highest Mobile Subscriber Growth Globally in Q3 2015: Ericsson

"Global mobile subscriptions are growing around 5 percent 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 total number of mobile subscriptions during the said period stood at around 7.3 billion across the world, including 87 million new subscriptions. Ericsson used various data sources for the report and verified the same with its internal assessment.

According to the global study, smartphones accounted for close to 75 percent of all mobile phones sold in the said quarter, compared with around 70 percent a year ago. "By 2016, the number of smartphone subscription will surpass those for basic phones. Some 85 percent of all subscriptions will be for mobile broadband by the end of 2021," the report predicted.

The study found that mobile Internet traffic has risen globally by 63 percent year-on-year and expects 11 times growth in smartphone traffic between 2015 and 2021.

"The growth in mobile data traffic is due to both the rising number of smartphone subscriptions, in particular for LTE smartphones, and increasing data consumption per subscriber. This is forecast to result in a 10-fold increase in total traffic for all devices by the end of 2021," the report added.

On mobile platforms or operating systems, the study found that a majority of Android and iOS users are loyal, but the same is not the case with Windows Phone users.

"Some 82 percent of Android users and 73 percent of iOS users selected a smartphone with the same operating system while switching to a new device. This is not the case for Windows Phone users - around 60 percent switched to Android and 15 percent to iOS smartphones," the report said.

The Ericsson study found out an increase in 4G subscriptions at around 850 million, with approximately 120 million addition in the September quarter. The report predicted that 5G subscription uptake expected to be faster than 4G as it also includes connection for Internet of Things (IoT).

Under IoT, devices and equipment will be connected with the Internet for automatic processes and the owner will be able to control the function from a distant location using a mobile phone or a computer.