The number of mobile broadband subscriptions grew to 500m during 2010, and this number will double before the end of 2011, said Ericsson, the provider of tech and services to telecom operators worldwide.
The majority of subscriptions – some 400m in total – are expected to be in the Asia-Pacific region, followed by North America and Western Europe, with more than 200m subscriptions each, Ericsson forecasted.
The growth of smartphones, laptops and tablets has been a large contributor to the increase in mobile broadband adoption, as has the rise in the use of apps and mobile internet services.
Mobile data traffic is still growing rapidly, said Ericsson, which also announced in August 2010 that the traffic had tripled in one year.
Mobile broadband subscriptions will top 3.8bn by 2015, according to Ericsson, with HSPA, CDMA and LTE networks driving 95pc of those subscriptions.
Tina Costanza
