If you follow tech trends, it comes as no surprise that mobile data traffic is expected to grow a lot over the next five years. But this forecast is wild: Ericsson is predicting it will jump tenfold between now and 2016, mostly driven by mobile video.
Ericsson's new Traffic and Market Data report is based on measurements the company recorded over several years in live networks covering all regions of the world.
The report goes on to say that mobile broadband subscriptions grew by 60 percent in one year and will grow from 900 million in 2011 to nearly 5 billion in just five years' time. And in 2016, users living on less than 1 percent of the Earth's total land area are set to generate around 60 percent of mobile traffic.
Smartphones will play a big role in data traffic over the next five years; by the time 2011 is over, total smartphone traffic will have tripled, the report says.
This forecast also shows how critical it will be for service providers to concentrate on the customer experience in order to draw new customers and keep from losing the masses to competitors.
