By Sven Grundberg Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES STOCKHOLM -(Dow Jones)- Telefon AB L.M. Ericsson (ERIC) is forecasting a tenfold increase in mobile data traffic over the next five years, mainly driven by video. By that time the Swedish network vendor expects mobile broadband subscriptions to exceed 5 billion, it says in its latest Traffic and Market Data report which looks into current trends. Users living on less than 1% of the earth's land surface will generate around 60% of mobile traffic by then, it predicts. The report is based on measurements of mobile voice and data volumes made by Ericsson in more than 180 countries. It uses the result to calculate world mobile traffic in 2G, 3G, and 4G networks. According to the report, mobile data traffic will double during 2011, mainly due to surging sales of smartphones, tablets and other data-hungry wireless devices. Total smartphone traffic will triple this year. Smartphones, such as Apple Inc.'s (AAPL) iPhone and devices running Google Inc.'s (GOOG) Android operating system, generate about 10 times more traffic than cheaper phones. By 2016, Ericsson expects mobile data traffic tol be equally split between smartphones on one hand, and PCs and tablets on the other. Global mobile penetration reached 82% of the population by the third quarter this year, with global mobile subscriptions at 5.8 billion. India and China are behind a large chunk of the growth, accounting for some 40% of the estimated 135 million additional subscrbers in the quarter, Ericsson said. -By Sven Grundberg, Dow Jones Newswires; +46-8-5451-3098; sven.grundberg@dowjones.com
