Dubai: The number of active mobile broadband subscriptions globally has grown over the last two years by more than 30 per cent annually, reaching over two billion in 2013, a special edition of “Trends in Telecommunication Reform” by the Telecommunication Development Bureau (BDT) of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), revealed.

“The 14th edition examines the evolution to fourth generation ICT regulation and the evolving role of ICT regulators as partners for economic development and social inclusion,” Mario Maniewicz, Chief of the Infrastructure, Enabling Environment and e-Applications Department at ITU/BDT, said at the World Telecommunication Development Conference 2014.

He said that 50 per cent of the world’s population was covered by a 3G network in 2013 while the migration to Long-Term Evolution (LTE) technology seems to be happening much faster than did the earlier migration from 2G to 3G networks.

According to the GSM Association (GSMA), commercial LTE networks were operating in 88 countries in 2013, up from 14 in just three years. Another organisation, the Global mobile Suppliers Association (GSA), puts that number at 101 countries.

Ericsson estimates that by 2019, 65 per cent of the world’s population will be covered by LTE, an increase from just 10 per cent in 2012.

Maniewicz said that smartphones are leading the way in drawing consumers online but tablets are showing very healthy shipment growth rates, as well, with more than 263 million tablets expected to be sold in 2014. That figure was 179 million just a year ago.

Smartphone shipments surpassed one billion units in 2013, according to research firms Gartner and International Data Corporation, representing 38 per cent annual growth and surpassing non-smartphone sales.

The study said that the availability of cheaper smartphones, coupled with falling mobile broadband service prices and increasing mobile broadband network coverage, is likely to bring the experience of living in a seamless digital world to many of the 4.4 billion people who are not yet online, helping to reduce the global digital divide.

The applications or “apps” market has remained vibrant, adding millions of users per month and reaching more than 100 billion downloads in 2013. That represented 50 per cent growth over the previous year, and total revenues were expected to have reached $26 billion (Dh95.49 billion) in 2013, even though free apps accounted for 91 per cent of total downloads.

“Mobile video traffic accounted for more than 50 per cent of mobile data traffic by the end of 2013, a figure that is expected to grow to nearly 69 per cent in 2018. By then, mobile cloud applications will account for 90 per cent of total mobile data traffic,” the report said.

Mobile broadband grew 55 per cent annually in the Arab region between 2010 and 2013. There were 71 million subscriptions at the end of 2013 with a penetration rate of 19 per cent.

The number of global mobile internet connections will exceed 10 billion by 2018, according to Cisco, and will be 1.4 times greater than the world’s population. The impact of all Internet-connected devices, apps and services on communications networks is enormous, and the future looks bright for equipment vendors, manufacturers and apps providers.

According to Ericsson, mobile data traffic is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 45 per cent over the 2013-2019 period, and fixed data traffic will grow at a CAGR of 25 per cent.

Maniewicz said that more than 11.7 million kilometres of fibre and microwave backbone transmission networks were available in five global regions: Africa, the Arab States, the Asia-Pacific region, the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), and Latin America and the Caribbean at the end of 2013.

“Deploying and extending nationwide broadband infrastructure remains a key target in most countries’ digital agendas and plans,” he said.