India took the top spot in terms of the number of net mobile additions during the third quarter, beating China by 6 million subscribers, according to Ericsson's latest Mobility Report.
India added 13 million mobile subscribers, the report shows. China added 7 million, compared to 6 million for the USA.
The newly-liberalized telecom market of Myanmar meanwhile came in a strong fourth place with 5 million net additions, while Nigeria was fifth with 4 million adds.
Together, the top five countries accounted for more than 40% of the world's 87 million new subscriptions. Global mobile subscriptions grew around 5% year-on-year during the quarter.
Excluding China and India, APAC markets added 26 million new subscriptions during the quarter, for a total penetration of 106%. China's mobile penetration grew to 93%, while India's increased to 77%.
LTE net additions grew by around 120 million, while WCDMA/HSPA added around 70 million, with the majority of gains coming from customers upgrading from 2G. Overall mobile broadband subscriptions reached 3.4 billion during the quarter.
Ericsson also used the report to predict that there will be 150 million 5G subscriptions by the end of 2021, with 5G adoption outpacing that of 4G during its early days. South Korea, Japan, China and the US are set to have the fastest uptake of 5G subscriptions.