India Has Highest Data Usage Per Smartphone In the World: Ericsson Mobility

According to a new report by Ericsson Mobility, the average monthly mobile data usage per phone in India is the highest in the world. Indian consumers are using much higher mobile data on their mobile devices in comparison with those in other countries. This is mostly due to the extremely cheap data services compared to other parts of the world. Operators like Reliance Jio have offered fast internet at very affordable pricing. Moreover, India has also seen massive growth in the LTE adoption, according to the report.

Not just the Internet, smartphones have also quickly become much more affordable in the country, which is also one of the biggest contributions to the growth of mobile data usage. Pretty much every smartphone, even in the budget segment, support 4G VoLTE. Therefore, consumers can easily watch videos, play games, make video calls, and more via mobile data. It is even more enjoyable in consuming media thanks to the larger displays and beefier batteries in recent smartphones.

The report in November 2019 from Ericsson Mobility also includes a couple of projections for India. For example, it believes that as high as 80% of mobile users in the country will use LTE by 2025. As per the report, there will be more than 150 million LTE subscriptions by the end of 2019. It will surpass older tech like Edge and GSM, which are still widely used in rural areas of India.

Head of Network Solutions for Market Area Southeast Asia, Oceania, & India, Nitin Bansal, said in the report:

By the end of this year, over 57% of mobile subscriptions will have mobile broadband. Meanwhile, the phone subscriptions share will rise from 48% to 54%. That is for 4G/LTE subscription. Meanwhile, the latest 5G tech will take several years to be implemented in India. According to the report, consumers in the country might have to wait until 2020 to be able to access 5G connectivity. By the end of 2025, 5G subscriptions will occupy 11% of the total mobile subscriptions.