Petroc Taylor
Research expert covering global developments in the use of data
Mobile communications - statistics & facts
Mobile communications technology has become indispensable in an ever-connected world. This has given rise to a highly competitive and diverse global market for mobile services and devices, as consumers look to adopt the latest advancements in on-the-go connectivity. Although smartphones are the primary devices via which consumers utilize mobile services, the mobile industry reaches far beyond, with 5G (fifth generation) technology bringing digital transformation to a range of industrial applications.
Mobile data traffic surges worldwide
The total number of mobile subscriptions worldwide reached almost nine billion in 2023, thus exceeding the world population, with penetration highest in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) region, followed by Europe and Asia-Pacific. The market has also seen a rapid increase in mobile data use over the past decade, with the average smartphone forecast to consume around 25 gigabytes of data per month in 2024, more than twice that of 2020. This has been driven by the adoption of data intensive activities such as 4K streaming, mobile gaming, and social media content creation, in turn enabled by improved hardware capabilities and broad mobile network coverage.5G opens a range of possibilities
The introduction of 5G mobile networks has ushered in a new era in mobile technology. The headline benefits of 5G are vastly superior download speeds and reduced latency when compared to 4G, opening up a host of use cases. Most notably, 5G is considered critical in taking full advantage of IoT (internet of things) and AI (artificial intelligence) powered devices, with such hardware requiring real time, reliable data transfer. Yet the rollout of 5G is far from complete. While the vast majority of North American households are covered by a 5G network, availability in Africa and South Asia lags far behind. Despite this, 5G could eventually help to bridge the digital divide by bringing high speed internet to areas without fixed telecommunications infrastructure.5G will continue to dominate the mobile telecoms agenda
While 6G technology lies on the horizon, the telecommunications industry will be primarily concerned with realizing the full potential of 5G over the coming years. A top priority will be the rollout of standalone 5G networks which do not rely on legacy 4G infrastructure, with network operators seeking to win over consumers on the quality of their mobile data services.
