Reliance Jio, Affordable Smartphones Prime Reasons For 4G Adoption In India

Reliance Jio played an important role in increasing the 4G presence in the country. Notably, Reliance Jio started its operations in September 2016, and now, it is offering 4G services to its 426 million users. The telecom company only offers 4G services in the country.

The telecom operator added 52 million users in less than three months of its operations. Besides, the company helped India to increase its overall 4G user base to 70 million by the end of 2016 as per the Nokia Mbit Index report.

According to the report, the data traffic was 13 percent in December 2016, which has been increased to 99 percent in 2020. The report added that the metro payload only stands at 9 percent. Besides, the report added that 3G contribution has been decreased sharply in five years.

"While 3G contributed 62 percent of the total data payload in 2016, the share fell to less than 2 percent in 2020, also marking the highest ever Y-o-Y decline of 56 percent during 2019-20," Nokia Mbit report said.

Affordable 4G Smartphone And Content Demand Between 2017 To 2021

The report also pointed out that 4G adoption has been increased due to affordable smartphones. The Nokia Mbit said that 4G smartphone penetration was only 12 percent in 2016; however, in 2020, the number has grown to 77 percent.

It said that average data traffic was increased to 68 percent in 2018, which is the highest in the five years. Nokia added that rural areas also contributed to this increasing demand. In addition, the report states that 150 million smartphones were shipped last year.

"With more smartphones into the economy and cheaper data tariffs, the figure has risen to about 5hrs/day in 2020. This is expected to grow further with the uptake of 5G. With surging internet users, total time spent/month on short content is expected to grow 4x by 2025," the report further added.

Future Outlook Of 4G Services In India

It is worth noting that affordable smartphones and cheap data prices have increased the demand for 4G penetration in India. In addition, digitization in the sector is expected to increase the consumption of 4G data vouchers and overall services.