164 EB per month, enough for 16.4 trillion high -resolution photos
The movement data Mobile telephony network increased by 20% worldwide between the fourth quarter of 2023 and the fourth quarter of 2024, reaching 164 EB per month, according to data from the Ericsson Mobility Report.
The long -term increase in data traffic is due to the continuous increase in smartphone subscriptions and the increase in the average volume of data per subscription, due to the high use of data consuming data, such as the video.
The explosive rise in data consumption is not accidental. It is directly linked to the growing number of mobile subscribers worldwide and the transition to faster, more efficient technologies such as 5G. As users require increasingly speeds and more stable connectivity, the adoption of newer networks reinforces and accelerates overall traffic on mobile networks.
Mobile subscriptions are increasing internationally.
In particular, according to Ericsson in the fourth quarter of 2024, 5G subscriptions reached almost 2.3 billion worldwide. The total number of mobile subscriptions amounted to 8.7 billion, with a net increase of 41 million subscriptions during the quarter.
India recorded the largest net increase in subscriptions in the quarter (+8 million), followed by China (+4 million) and the Philippines (+3 million).
The penetration of mobile subscriptions worldwide reached 107%.
The number of broadband mobile subscriptions increased by 80 million in the quarter, reaching 7.8 billion, with an annual increase of 4%. Broadband mobile telephony now accounts for 90% of all mobile subscriptions.
5G development
5G subscriptions increased by 162 million in the quarter, raising the total to nearly 2.3 billion. This accounts for 26% of all mobile subscriptions.
About 348 communication providers have launched 5G commercial services, while over 60 have developed or launched 5G standalone (SA) networks.
Falling 4G subscriptions
4G subscriptions continued to decline, recording a 54 million quarter decline as subscribers go to 5G.
The total number of 4G subscriptions is about 5 billion, representing 57% of all mobile subscriptions.
WCDMA/HSPA subscriptions decreased by 32 million, while subscriptions exclusively to GSM/EDGE decreased by 34 million in the quarter.
The number of unique mobile subscribers is 6.6 billion. The difference between the total number of subscriptions and the number of unique subscribers is due to multiple subscriptions per user, multiple devices per user and optimization of subscriptions for different types of calls.
What is an exabyte?
* 1 EB = 1,000,000,000 GB (Gigabyte)
* That is, 164 EB = 164 billion GB each month
Examples of Use:
1. High -resolution photos
* A high -resolution photo (eg 12 MP) occupies about 10 mb.
* 1 GB = 100 photos, so:
* 164 billion GB = 16.4 trillion photos
2. HD video
* A 1 hour HD video consumes about 3 GB.
* ‘AS: 164 billion GB / 3 = about 55 billion hours of HD streaming
* That is: over 6 million years of continuous follow -up!
3. Songs
* A song in good quality is around 5 MB.
* ‘AS: 164 billion GB = 32.8 trillion songs
* With 100 songs per album, we are talking about 328 billion albums.
4. Browsing / social media
* An hour of medium browsing on social media or web browsing consumes about 150 MB.
* 1 GB = 6.5 hours browsing, so:
* 164 billion GB = 1.07 trillion hours browsing (ie 122 million years of human tour!)
* If you had only 1 GB a day, it would take you 449 million years to spend 164 EB.
