India Has Highest Average Usage Per Smartphone, Says Ericsson

India has the highest average usage per smartphone, reaching 9.8 gigabytes (GB) per month at the end of 2018, Ericsson said.

The report also said that the total mobile data traffic per month in India is expected to increase at a CAGR of 23 percent from 4.6 exabytes (EB) in 2018 to 16 EB by 2024.

Meanwhile, Ericsson predicted that the total smartphone subscriptions in the region will reach 1.1 billion by 2024 growing at 11 percent CAGR, whereas the total mobile broadband subscriptions in India are expected to grow at CAGR of 13 percent from about 610 million in 2018 to 1.25 billion in 2024.

Nitin Bansal, Head of Ericsson India and Head of Network Solutions, South East Asia, Oceania, and India said that "LTE will remain the most dominant access technology in the region up to 2024 even as 5G subscriptions are expected to grow during this period."

5G Uptake Will Be Faster Than Expected

As per the Ericsson report, 5G coverage is forecast to reach 45 percent of the world's population by end of 2024 and this could surge to 65 percent, as spectrum sharing technology enables 5G deployments on LTE frequency bands.

It said communication service providers in several markets have switched on 5G following the launch of 5G-compatible smartphones. Service providers in some markets are also setting more ambitious targets for population coverage of up to 90 percent within the first year.

Ericsson also pointed out that the strong commitment of chipset and device vendors is also key to the acceleration of 5G adoption.

It said the uptake of 5G subscriptions is expected to be fastest in North America, with 63 percent of anticipated mobile subscriptions in the region being for 5G in 2024. North East Asia follows in second place (47 percent), and Europe in third (40 percent).

For the unaware, Ericsson's new 5G solutions will extend network capacity and coverage, enabling smooth network evolution, and facilitating new consumer and industry use cases.

DCC Approved 5G Trials

As we all know that this report comes at that when the apex body of telecom DCC has already approved 5G trials in India. However, the decision-making body has asked TRAI to revisit the pricing of the spectrum.