As mobile phone penetration continues to increase in Africa, statistics released over the weekend by Stockholm-based Ericsson has put Africa’s mobile subscriptions at 781 million in the second quarter of 2013 with Nigeria leading the pack out of the continent’s 20 million new subscriptions.

According to Ericsson’s Head of Strategic Marketing and Intelligence, Patrick Cerwall, Nigeria contributed four million in terms of net additions.

Globally, Africa came in third after Asia Pacific and China, which presently have 1.28 billion and 1.17 billion mobile subscriptions respectively.

Others including Western Europe, Central and Eastern Europe, India, Middle East, Latin America and North America added 1 million, 2 million, 8 million, 6 million, and 4 million new subscribers respectively in the second quarter.

105 million net additions of mobile subscription were achieved across the globe in the second quarter of 2013 while mobile penetration in the world reached 91 percent.

Global mobile subscription is expected to grow six per cent from 2012 to 2018 to 9 billion, higher than the present world population of 7 million.

A preview of the latest Ericsson Consumer Labs study for sub-Saharan Africa which is expected to be released in October noted that mobile phone is by far the main device in sub-Saharan Africa, with DVD players and Smartphones being the second and third in line.

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