Ericsson is reporting that 40% of all phones sold worldwide in the last quarter were smartphones, driving a doubling of mobile data traffic over the past year.
Canada is running well ahead of the global pace of smartphone adoption. In the most recent quarter, Rogers reported that nearly two-thirds (65%) of its post-paid subscriber base was using a smartphone. TELUS is reporting smartphones are now 63% of its postpaid base. Bell is at 60% smartphone adoption.
Ericsson’s report confirms trends that we saw earlier in the month in Sandvine’s Global Internet Phenomena Report: data growth is largely being driven by video. According to Ericsson, video accounts for 25% of all smartphone traffic and 40% of tablet traffic. The Ericsson report is an interesting global snapshot that demonstrates how Canada’s mobile networks are actually ahead of most of the rest of the world. For example, well under 10% of the world’s 6.4B mobile subscribers have access to LTE service; most Canadians already have access to multiple, competing LTE networks.
All of this is background for a critical issue facing carriers and consumers: the need to expand networks for capacity. Initial network deployments tend to use taller towers to provide coverage. As adoption and consumption increase, there is a need to add more towers in order to be able to handle the load. This is pushing towers closer to neighbourhoods. Let’s face it, we want the networks to work where ever we are when we turn on our devices. I have written before about the need for more towers and dealing with community activists who have been mobilized by academic dishonesty.
Let me refer you to an interesting opinion piece at Forbes, How Activism Distorts The Assessment Of Health Risks, written by Geoffrey C. Kabat, a cancer epidemiologist at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine.