Indians Top World’s Mobile Data Usage Charts: Use 9.8 GB Data Per Smartphone Every Month 

According to a new study by Swedish telecom major Ericsson, India has the highest average data usage per smartphone, reaching 9.8 GB per month at the end of 2018 and the forecasts says the figure is likely to double to 18 GB per month per smartphone by 2024, reports The Hindu.

“Increased numbers of Long Term Evolution (LTE) subscriptions, attractive data plans being offered by service providers, and young people’s changing video viewing habits have driven monthly usage growth,” head of Ericsson India and head of network solutions, southeast Asia, Oceania and India, Nitin Bansal, said.

If we compare mobile data traffic in 2018 per smartphone per month North America stood at 7 GB, 3.1 GB for Latin America, 3 GB for Middle East and Africa, 6.7 GB for Western Europe, 4.5 GB for Central and Eastern Europe, 7.1 GB for northeast Asia and 3.6 GB for southeast Asia and Oceania region.

Mr Bansal added, “Mobile video traffic is fuelling the total data traffic as users are spending more time streaming and sharing video. This is expected to continue, as video is embedded in all types of online content… we see monthly data usage per smartphone increasing from 9.8 GB in 2018 to 18 GB by 2024 in India, growing at 11% CAGR,”.

By 2024, as per the ‘Ericsson Mobility Report’, the total smartphone subscriptions in the region is likely to reach 1.1 billion growing at 11 per cent CAGR. The total number of mobile broadband subscriptions in India is expected to grow from about 610 million in 2018 to 1.25 billion in 2024.

5G technology is on the horizon but LTE would remain the most dominant communications technology in the region up to 2024. Simultaneously, 5G subscriptions are expected to grow during this period and as per research done by Ericsson, Indian smartphone users are willing to pay more than 66 per cent premium for 5G services.