Ericsson expects mobile traffic to triple by 2016

Ericsson has created a hyper-color portrait of the fast-moving mobile industry in its new "Traffic and Market Data" report, which is packed with quotable facts such as that the world's networks gained 135 million new subscriptions during the recent third quarter alone. It found the global mobile penetration rate to be at 82%, with mobile subscriber numbers at now nearly 5.8 billion, driven swiftly by India and China, where 50 million new users were added during the quarter. Total mobile traffic, Ericsson expects, will triple in 2011, and by 2016, big city dwellers — "those living on less than 1% of the Earth's total land area" — will be responsible for 60% of mobile traffic. In short, plenty of reasons for any carrier not already stressing and building out its network to get started.