The amount of data sent over the world's mobile phone networks surpassed the volume of voice traffic during December of 2009, according to Ericsson. The figures have come from Ericsson's own network measurements.
Approximately 140,000 Terabytes per month of both voice and data traffic was sent worldwide in December last year. Ericsson's findings show that global data traffic grew 280% during each of the last two years and is forecast to double annually over the next five years. During the same two-year period, traffic in 3G networks surpassed that of 2G networks.
Hans Vestberg, Ericsson's President and CEO, said "This is a significant milestone with some 400 million mobile broadband subscriptions now generating more data traffic than the voice traffic from the total 4.6 billion mobile subscriptions around the world. Our view that the appeal of anywhere, anytime connectivity would drive mobile broadband growth is confirmed by the real world measurements undertaken by Ericsson."