Urbanization is currently a major global trend.

Figure 8 shows that by 2016 over 30 percent of the

world’s population are expected live in metro and

urban areas with a density of more than 1,000 people

per square kilometer. These areas represent less than

1 percent of the Earth’s total land area, yet they are

set to generate around 60 percent of mobile

traffic by 2016.

In metro and urban areas, heterogeneous networks

will complement macro network improvements

to serve the traffic and provide high-quality user

experience. In less-densely populated areas the

focus will be more on building cost-effective

coverage and capacity.

This analysis is made based on knowledge of traffic

volume data from different geographical areas in

many networks combined with traffic forecast figures.

A high quantity of today’s mobile data traffic is

already being generated in metro areas. However, it is

worth noting that by 2016 the amount of mobile data

traffic is forecasted to be 10 times that of 2011.

Original report at file:///E:/SONY%20CHANDRAN/Univercell/Articles/erricson%20report.pdf