Mobiles are expected to outnumber people by 2016, as there will be ten billion connections compared to 7.5 billion people, according to figures by Cisco.
This in turn will lead to a massive increase in data usage, with monthly global mobile data traffic expected to exceed ten Exabytes each month by 2016.
Within the next four years, monthly mobile tablet traffic will surpass one Exabyte, while these devices will account for ten per cent of global monthly mobile data traffic.
It has also been predicted that China will enjoy a ten per cent share in global monthly mobile data by 2016, an increase from five per cent in 2011.
The firm also revealed that two-thirds of the world's mobile data traffic will be used for video by 2016, equating to a 25-fold increase from 2011.
In 2016, 4G will account for six per cent of connections but 36 per cent of mobile traffic as this form of connection will generate nine times more traffic than non-4G connections.
There will also be 1.4 mobile devices for every person in 2016. A recent study by SecurEnvoy found that 66 per cent of Brits suffer from Nomophobia, which is the fear of losing their phone.
