Wireless Data Usage Surged From 828 Mn GB To 46,404 Mn GB During 2018-19: TRAI

Reliance Jio has disrupted the entire telecom industry. The company has helped India to achieve a 12 percent market share in the overall internet subscriber base. Now, it has been reported that the total wireless data usage has reached 46, 404 million GB from 828 million GB in 2018. However, it is expected to cross this mark in 2019, as it has touched 54 million GB mark in September this year.

According to TRAI, the total number of wireless users has been already increased to 664.80 million from 281.58 million. That means there is a growth of 36.6 percent in 2018 from 2017.

"The volume of total wireless data usage increased from 828 million GB during the year 2014 to 46,404 million GB during the year 2018-19. The wireless data usage in the year 2019 is expected to surpass the previous year usage by a significant margin as reflected by usage of 54,917 million GB till September 2019", TRAI said.

TRAI also reveals that 46,406 million GB data were used last year. It was 20,092 million GB data in 2017. On the other hand, there were only 4,642 million GB used before 2016, which clearly shows that Reliance Jio has actually played a very important role in achieving these numbers.

"The last four years have witnessed unprecedented growth in wireless data usage for communication and entertainment. With the entry of a new TSP using Long Term Evolution (LTE)/4G technology and the subsequent gradual adaptation of this technology by the leading incumbents, data usage has grown by leaps and bounds, and it is expected to grow further in future also," the regulator said.

It is worth mentioning that these numbers have been achieved when companies were offering tariffs at cheap prices, but now the scenario has been changed as telcos have raised tariffs by 42 percent. So now, it would be interesting to see how people will consume data.