 broadband is growing at double the rate in developing countries as compared to developed countries. Mobile broadband penetration rate is expected to reach a global value of 32% by the end of 2014, with developing countries still only being 21% covered VS. 84% in developed countries. The penetration rate is almost double that of 2011. Africa leads in mobile broadband growth from 2% in 2010 and to 20% in 2014. Mobile subscriptions will reach almost 7 billion by the end of 2014, with a penetration rate of 96%, with more than half of these coming from Asia-Pacific region. Mobile cellular growth rates are at the lowest global level of 2.6%, which indicates saturation in the markets globally, with developing countries still expanding twice as much as developed countries. Fixed broadband growth is slowing down in developing countries. By the end of 2014, nearly 3 billion people (40% of world population) will be using the Internet, with 66% of the same hailing from developing countries. While 44% of world households will have an Internet connection, only 10% of households in Africa enjoy this technology. The percentage of fixed broadband users who enjoy more than 10Mbit/s speeds still remains lower in developing countries when compared to developed countries. CHAPTER 3 DEPLOYMENT CHALLENGES IN EVOLVING 4G All of the above indicators imply that there is still good potential for enabling high-speed mobile broadband access and applications that exploit the same. For more detailed analysis of traffic profiles and dimensioning inputs, see Chapter 1. Future Traffic Profiles and Trends Having seen how the Internet and mobile Internet devices are all shaping up, it is interesting to see what sort of trends are seen in the near horizon of five to seven years and what changes will be happening in that same timeframe. is very important for operators to understand that all of these trends represent real opportunities for growth and profitability and hence need to be factored in when planning for 4G network, and beyond, deployment. 