Are high-speed mobile broadband networks a fad? Will people still want to access the internet over a phone in five years?
More than ever, says Ericsson, which predicts that the number of mobile broadband subscriptions will grow to more than 3.4 billion in 2015 from 360 million in 2009. Soon, the penetration rate of people accessing the internet on their phone will hit 80 percent.
The predictions were released today along with the current status of the industry. Here’s a few more numbers to whet your appetite:
— Yesterday, Ericsson (NSDQ: ERIC) said the 5 billionth subscription was added worldwide, driven by emerging markets like India and China.
— Of those subscribers, more than 500 million have 3G.
— It expects the number of subscribers to grow by 10x to 50 billion by 2020.
— For context, only 720 million people had mobile subscriptions in 2000, which is less than the amount of users China alone has today.

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