India’s data usage per smartphone may rise to about 25 GB per month by 2025: Report

New Delhi: India’s data usage per month is expected to rise to about 25 GB per month by 2025, according to a forecast by Swedish telecom gear maker Ericsson.

In its Mobility Report for June 2020, Ericsson said in the India region, the average monthly mobile data usage per smartphone continues to show robust growth, boosted by the rapid adoption of 4G.  

Low prices for mobile broadband services, affordable smartphones and people’s changing video viewing habits have continued to drive monthly usage growth in the region, the study found.

However, Ericsson study said that only 4 percent of households have fixed broadband, making smartphones the only way to access the internet in many cases.

The study projected that total traffic will triple reaching 21EB per month in 2025 led by high growth in the number of smartphone users, including growth in rural areas, and an increase in average usage per smartphone.

“A total of around 410 million additional smartphone users are expected in India by 2025. Even if the traffic per existing smartphone user continues to grow significantly over time, the increase in average traffic per smartphone is expected to moderate as more consumers in India acquire smartphones. The average traffic per smartphone is expected to increase to around 25GB per month in 2025,” the Ericsson Mobility Report for June 2020 said.