Asia Will Represent 60% of All Global Mobile Subs by 2020

There were 2.5 billion mobile subscribers in the Asia Pacific region in 2015, growing to 3.1 billion by 2020, according to the GSMA.

Some 62 percent of people in the region were mobile subscribers, growing to nearly 75 percent  by 2020.

The Asia Pacific region will account for 60 percent of the world’s one billion unique mobile subscribers by 2020. The four largest markets in the region--China, India, Indonesia and Japan--will represent 75 percent of region subs.

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India alone is expected to add nearly 250 million new subscribers by 2020, but smaller countries in the region such as Bangladesh, Indonesia, Myanmar and Pakistan will also make major contributions to subscriber growth, GSMA predicts.

Mobile broadband (3G/4G) accounted for 45 percent of total mobile connections in Asia Pacific in 2015, forecast to rise to 70 percent by 2020.

Smartphone accounts reached 1.7 billion at the end of 2015, accounting for 45 percent of total connections.

China, India and Indonesia have been the main drivers of smartphone growth, which has doubled over the last two years.

The region will add a further 1.3 billion smartphone connections by 2020, reaching 3 billion, or 66 percent of the mobile subscriber base, by 2020.