In the grim, urban future, over half of the planet will have a mobile broadband subscription, according to a report from Ericsson. The new Traffic and Market Data report (PDF) is predicting that there'll be 5 billion mobile broadband subscriptions by 2016 out of a US-Census-Bureau projected population of 7.3 billion (although …

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Monday 7th November 2011 13:01 GMT Mme.Mynkoff

Something to celebrate

Cities are great. Life is much less fun in the countryside in a Third World nation -- where you have to marry your cousin.

Only affluent Westerners seem to think the rest of the world should be stuck in the mud forever, and be happy there.

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Monday 7th November 2011 15:02 GMT Anonymous Coward

"Mobile data traffic is also expected to surge, growing 60 per cent a year every year between now and 2016"

Its obvious, with a bit of thought for most people. May not be the numbers given, but mobile data usage will only increase.

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Monday 7th November 2011 16:36 GMT Phil O'Sophical

Cities

1000 people per km², and they want to spend their time on the net? Maybe they should get a life and talk to their neighbours instead.

I'm reminded of Thoreau's definition of city life: millions of people all being lonely together.

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Monday 7th November 2011 16:39 GMT Turtle_Fan

Let me guess....

A mobile device and infrastructure maker, commissions a report pointing to more demand for their wares!? No s**t.

Saying that, 5 billion mobile data is dead easy considering the amount of non-phone/tab/laptop things (cars, monitoring devices for the elderly, sensors etc etc) will have their own data plan.

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Monday 7th November 2011 19:01 GMT Jacqui

London, UK

the city that drinks its own wee-wee (multiple times).

Also explains why bottled water is so common in big cities :-)

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Monday 7th November 2011 22:21 GMT Peter Galbavy

"... for every 1,000 new broadband connections, 80 new jobs are created."

Back of a fag packet math; £25/month per connection (premium, business level type) gives us £300/year * 1,000 = £300,000. 80 jobs ? £300,000 / 80 = £3,750/annum per worker. I see a truly dystopian vision here...

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