Smartphones Users In India To Reach 1 Billion By 2024: Ericsson Report

By 2024, India will have over 1 billion smartphone users and the total mobile data traffic per month in the country will quadruple by that time, Ericsson said in a report released on Nov. 27.

According to the latest edition of Ericsson Mobility Report, smartphone subscriptions in India will grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 10 percent while at the same time, India will have 1.42 billion mobile users from 1.2 billion now.

At the same time, there will be 7.2 billion smartphone users globally, the report said.

India also saw the second-highest number of net mobile subscription additions by a country in the third quarter of 2018, with the addition of 31 million mobile subscriptions, news agency IANS said quoting from the report.

Globally, the third quarter of 2018 saw an addition of 120 million new subscriptions, with China adding 37 million and Indonesia adding 13 million new subscriptions, the news agency added.

According to the report, mobile data traffic in India will grow from three exabytes (EB) in 2018 to 12 EB by 2024 per month. One exabyte is equal to a billion gigabytes.

Video will continue to drive data usage and monthly data consumption per smartphone will increase from 6.8 gigabytes (GB) in 2018 to 15 GB by 2024 growing at CAGR of 14 percent, IANS wrote in its report.

“LTE roll outs in India will continue and it is expected to be the most dominant access technology by 2024 accounting for nearly 81 percent of all mobile subscriptions in India compared to 30 percent in 2018,” Nitin Bansal, Head of Ericsson India and Head of Network Solutions, South East Asia, Oceania and India said in a statement.

According to the report, 5G, which is expected to make its debut by 2020, will cover more than 40 percent global population and 1.5 billion users by the end of 2024.

According to the report, this will make 5G the fastest generation of cellular technology to be rolled out on a global scale, IANS reported.

The key drivers for 5G deployment will be increased network capacity, lower cost per gigabyte, and new use case requirements, the report said adding North America and north-east Asia are expected to lead the 5G deployment.