Smartphone subscription to reach 6.1 bln by 2020

Ninety percent of people aged six years and over will have mobile phones by 2020, when the number of smartphone subscription is set to reach 6.1 billion, the latest Ericsson Mobility Report reveals.

"The falling cost of handsets, coupled with improved usability and increasing network coverage, are factors that are making mobile technology a global phenomenon that will soon be available to the vast majority of the world's population, regardless of age or location," Rima Qureshi, Ericsson's Senior Vice President, said in the report.

"The Ericsson Mobility Report shows that in 2020 the world will be connected like never before," she added.

The report, which revealed the continuing dramatic spread of mobile technology, also predicted that by 2020, mobile video traffic is set to have increased tenfold and constitute around 55 percent of all mobile data traffic.

Ericsson Mobility Report is one of the leading analyses of data traffic available. It provides insights into current traffic and market trends in today's networked society.

Founded in 1876, with headquarters in Stockholm, Ericsson connects more than 2.5 billion subscribers, whose networks carry about 40 percent of the world's mobile traffic.

Ericsson's net sales in 2013 were 227.4 billion SEK (34.9 billion U.S. dollars).