5G surpassed 4G worldwide in net additions, Ericsson Report

According to Ericsson Mobility Report released on Tuesday, 31st August, 2021,  In Q2 2021, the total number of mobile
subscriptions was around 8.1 billion, with the net addition of 50 million subscriptions during the quarter.

China had the most net additions during the quarter (+13 million), followed by Indonesia (+5 million) and the US (+3 million).

The report says Global mobile subscription penetration was 103 percent while the number of mobile broadband subscriptions grew by about 100 million in the quarter to reach 6.8 billion, a year-on-year increase of 7 percent.

It also highlights that 5G subscriptions with a 5G-capable device grew by 84 million during the quarter, lifting the total to 380 million.

Commercial 5G services have been launched by 176 communications service providers while  4G subscriptions increased by 71 million to 4.8 billion, representing 59 percent of all mobile subscriptions, and WCDMA/HSPA subscriptions declined by 46 million.

GSM/EDGE-only subscriptions dropped by 52 million during the quarter, and other technologies decreased by about 7 million.

The number of unique mobile subscribers is about 6 billion. The difference between the number of subscriptions and the number of subscribers is due to inactive subscriptions, multiple device ownership and/or optimization of subscriptions for different types of calls.