Ericsson and Nokia joined forces today to call for immediate action to save Europe’s digital future and competitiveness. The two companies, supported by ASML and SAP, released a statement emphasizing the importance of telecommunications as a driver of digital competitiveness. Maybe that is not surprising, as the message comes from two giants whose core business is telecommunications.
However, the link between digitalization and telecommunication goes beyond vendors’ business and is deeply connected to our society’s increasing dependence on mobile devices.
⁉️ How can the link between telecommunications, digitalization, and society’s evolution be illustrated?
Nothing perhaps better to describe – and quantify- this link than the (1) International Telecommunication Union digital development facts and figures report of 2024 and (2) Cloudflare Radar figures, which shows that:
🌍 Mobile broadband represents 17.6% of the global internet traffic. (Mobile broadband ==1278 Exabyte as shown in Figure 1, while fixed broadband == 5966 Exabytes)
📈 Since 2021, mobile broadband traffic has increased by 19.6% annually, faster than the 15.2% for fixed broadband.
📳 55.6% of all internet traffic (around 4000 Exabytes) originates from mobile devices (using mobile broadband, wifi, and other wireless access means) as Figure 2 shows, while 44.3% originates from desktops.
👉 Thus, if we assume that mobile broadband is entirely consumed by mobile devices (i.e., ignoring the small percentage of desktops using mobile broadband with Fixed Wireless Access (FWA)), then approximately 25% of all mobile internet traffic is carried over mobile broadband globally!
These numbers show how much our society depends on mobile devices for digital interaction. More than half of our banking, healthcare, gaming, video streaming, etc., use mobile devices! Further, mobile broadband, provided by telecommunications networks, carries about a quarter of mobile devices traffic, and the percentage is increasing.
Of course, there are more aspects linking digitalization and telecommunications, but the above are interesting numbers that illustrate the link.