Mobile data traffic in the Middle East and North East Africa (Mena) is expected to grow 16 times between 2015 and 2021, fuelled mainly by the usage of video in smartphones.
During the same period, the global data traffic is expected to grow by 10 times.
In June, mobile network equipment maker Ericsson said in its mobility report that data traffic will grow by 14 times in Mena and eightfold globally.
“Data traffic increased by around 80 per cent in 2015 from the previous year. It is expected to rise by around 60 per cent between 2015 and 2021. The amount of data used monthly by each active smartphone will increase substantially from an average of 1.2GB in 2015, to around 10GB in 2021,” said Rafiah Ebrahim, President of Ericsson Region Middle East and Africa.
She said the massive growth will be driven by availability of affordable smartphones, coupled with availability of mobile broadband networks in highly populated countries, increased number of subscribers moving to faster networks and growth of the video consumption.
While the region is extremely diverse and some countries are only just adopting long-term evolution (LTE) networks, she said that Ericsson is seeing a rapid rise in terms of data consumption and connectivity.
“We are currently working with our partners in the industry to introduce the next generation technologies, which will fuel the transformation to the networked society throughout our region,” she said.
According to latest Ericsson Mobility Report, the region as a whole had around 690 million mobile subscriptions at the end of 2015. Between 2015 and 2021, it is forecast that mobile subscriptions will grow at a compound annual growth rate of four per cent, amounting to 880 million.
By 2021, Rafiah said that the number of smartphone subscribers is forecast to reach 430 million, accounting for around 50 per cent of all mobile subscriptions. Around 40 per cent of countries in the region have launched LTE, but the technology only accounts for around 4 per cent of subscriptions, most of which are concentrated in the Gulf countries.
However, she said that LTE subscriptions are expected to increase to 290 million by the end of 2021, amounting to over 30 per cent of all mobile subscriptions.