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Africa is the third largest mobile market in the world, with more subscribers than India

As of the first quarter of 2014, there were 6.8 billion mobile subscribers in the world, a figure that is expected to grow to 9.2 billion by the end of 2019. Today, Africa has 12% (835 million) of the total mobile subscriptions worldwide, making it the third largest region worldwide, larger than Latin America, North America and India. In the first quarter of 2014, Africa's mobile subscription base gained an additional 26 million mobile subscribers, second in growth only to India (28 million).

The rising number of mobile subscribers in Africa has resulted in high mobile data traffic. In 2013, mobile phone users in Africa accessed 37,500 TB (Terabytes) of data per month and this figure has doubled to 76,000 TB per month in 2014. In 2015, the figure is expected to double again reaching 147,000 TB a month. The increase is partialy due to the fact that the majority of mobile subscribers in Africa are using 3G/4G mobile technology, which is projected to attain a 75% market share by the end of 2019.

Data: : Ericsson Mobility Report, June 2014
Sub-Saharan Africa- Ericsson Mobility Report Appendix, June 2014
All Africa

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