Denis Opudo
The number of mobile telephone users in Sub-Saharan Africa is expected to rise to 990 million came 2023 this is according to Ericsson the Network Solution provider. The report was made during the launch of Ericson Mobility Report by Mr. Nicholas Blixell who is the Head of Customer Unit, West Africa of Ericsson.
The current 700 million subscribers are expected to go high by 60% by 2023. The mobile broadband subscription is currently at 350 million which is expected to be going high by 880 million by 2023 which will be a 16% increase. The number of people with smartphones in currently recorded at 50% and is expected to go high to 85% in 2023.
The company CEO said that there is a need for Africa to reduce the pricing, to make internet accessible to those who live in the rural. Bixell said that it’s foreseen that globally there would be one billion Fifth Generation devices (5G) come 2023, and this is expected to cover above 20% of the world population by 2023.
The mobile data traffic is expected to grow gradually due to the rise in a viewing of the video content. 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE) will be the preferred choice technology by the end of 2017 facilitated by the need for improved user experience and faster networks. LTE will be dominant by the end of 2017.
Another version of LTE known as Voice over LTE (VoLTE) was launched in above 125 networks in more than 60 countries across all the continents. VoLTE subscribers are expected to go high to 5.5 million come to the end of 2023 that will be above 80% of the total of LTE and 5G subscribers. The recent device of VoLTE is a smartwatch which will allows users to make direct calls.
