Earlier this year Ericsson predicted we’d end 2011 with over a billion mobile broadband connections worldwide.
The latest market data from ABI Research agrees, with mobile broadband-enabled subscriptions expected to pass the billion mark within the next 11 months. That’s a fifth of all mobile connections around the world.
Another 28% growth (6.6 billion subscriptions) is anticipated by 2016; 40% of these connections are expected to be mobile broadband-enabled.
Fei Feng Seet, research associate at ABI Research, said “With the proliferation of mobile broadband, it has become increasingly common to have multiple mobile connections per user. The main motivation is the desire to stay connected everywhere, with more high speed 4G wireless networks lighting up, and a huge increase in the popularity of social connectivity.”