Ericsson predicts over nine billion mobile subscriptions by 2017

Ericsson has published its latest mobile traffic report and is predicting the number of mobile subscriptions in 2017 will top nine billion, with the bulk of the growth coming in Asia and the Far East. The world is going online, the report finds, but most people's first experience of the internet will be on a mobile phone …

[Anonymous Coward]

RIM might want to take a lead from Ericsson....

Before its too late.

[Robert Ramsay]

All that's going to be left after the human race dies out are going to be the cockroaches and huge piles of mobile phones...

[The elephant in the room]

9 billion phones

On a planet with a population of 7 billion, 1 billion of whom live on less than $1 per day?

Disco Stu extrapolating the sales of disco records based on 1976 sales figures struts to mind.

Let me get my jacket - it's the white one with pink flames.

[NumptyScrub]

Re: 9 billion phones

quote: On a planet with a population of 7 billion, 1 billion of whom live on less than $1 per day?

Indeed, since they mention 7 billion subscriptions. 1 work phone plus 1 personal phone = 2 subscriptions, plus the possibility of a 3G laptop and/or tablet if people can't be bothered tethering... you could theoretically hit 4+ subscriptions per head in the "developed" world.

The article even mentions that Western Europe already has subscriptions of 126% of the population, which lends credence to the assumption they are talking about per SIM, not per head. :)