Mobile phones will be available to vast majority by 2020, says communications firm Ericsson

It forecasts that 90% of the world’s population over 6-years-old will have a mobile phone within 6 years.

And smartphones are expected to soar in popularity. There have been 800 million new smartphone subscriptions in 2014 – bringing the total to 2.7 billion globally, according to the latest edition of the Ericsson mobility report, which is a comprehensive update on mobile trends. But this smartphone figure is predicted to top 6.1 billion by 2020.

India and China are seeing the fastest growth for new mobile subscriptions, while mobile video traffic is expected to form the majority of mobile data traffic by 2020.

“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,” according to Rima Qureshi, senior vice president, chief strategy officer and head of M&A, Ericsson.