Mobile broadband subscriptions are set to hit a major milestone this year, if an industry leader's prediction comes true.
Telecoms equipment provider Ericsson claimed it expected to see subscriptions hit the one billion mark in 2011, doubling the half a billion milestone achieved in 2010.
IT PRO asked Ericsson how it came to the one billion figure but it only replied by saying: "We [based] our forecast both on external and internal sources."
The company put the expected acceleration of subscriptions down to the increasing growth of smartphone ownership, along with more and more connected laptops and tablets using mobile broadband to connect to the internet.
Although the company claimed there would be significant growth in Western Europe with connections reaching 200 million this year the biggest adoption was set for the Asia Pacific region. Ericsson predicted this part of the world would see a massive 400 million connections by the end of 2011.
The continuing rollout of Long Term Evolution (LTE) technology across the globe would also help with the increased take-up. However, the is still lagging far behind other countries in launching its own LTE network.
Going forward, Ericsson claimed mobile broadband subscriptions were set to top 3.8 by 2015.
