Market research firm gartner has predicted that global mobile connections will reach 5.6 billion in 2011, up 11% from 5 billion connections in last year.
The company added that mobile data services revenue will total $314.7bn in 2011, a 22.5% increase from 2010 revenue of $257bn.
Worldwide mobile connections will experience steady growth through 2015 when mobile connections are forecast to reach 7.4 billion, and mobile data revenue will reach $552bn, said Gartner.
Gartner also expects that mobile data usage per connection will increase throughout the forecast period.
Gartner principal research analyst Jessica Ekholm said mobile data traffic will increase significantly as more people will have access to mobile data networks, there is a migration toward smartphones and an increase in sales of media tablets.
Ekholm said, "Mobile data volumes will continue to grow as mobile data networks become faster and more ubiquitous, while at the same time the number of data users and data usage per user is expected to grow.
"Data revenue will continue to grow but at a much slower rate," Ekholm said. "This is causing a decoupling between revenue and data traffic, and it is also creating an increase in network costs for carriers as they try to sustain growing data traffic."
Gartner expects communications service providers (CSPs) to increasingly start moving toward offering more flexible and more personalised data plans.
Gartner research director Sylvain Fabre said, "What carriers currently need are innovative ways to increase data revenue while finding smart solutions to manage a growing demand in data.
"Ultimately, it will be the consumer who chooses the content he or she wants to use, and carriers need to ensure that the quality of experience is good. A substandard user experience may lead to higher churn."
