In five years, 39% mobile users in India will use 5G, says Ericsson report

Sees half a billion such users by 2027, high growth in number of smartphone users and spike in average usage per smartphone

Ericsson expects 500 million 5G mobile phone users in India by 2027, accounting for 39 per cent of total customer base.

This insight is part of a mobility report released by the Swedish telecom gear maker on Tuesday.

“Total mobile data traffic in the Indian region is estimated to grow by a factor of 4 between 2021 and 2027. This is driven by high growth in the number of smartphone users and an increase in average usage per smartphone. The average data traffic per smartphone in the Indian region is the second highest globally. It is projected to grow from 20GB in 2021 to around 50GB per month in 2027–a CAGR of 16 per cent,” said Thiaw Seng Ng, Ericsson’s head of network evolution, South East Asia, Oceania and India.

While 4G contributes about 68 per cent of the total mobile subscriptions in India, its contribution is expected to drop to 55 per cent in 2027. Also, 4G subscriptions are forecast to decline annually to an estimated 700 million subscriptions in 2027 as subscribers migrate to 5G post introduction of 5G in India, it said.

Globally, 5G will account for almost half of mobile subscriptions by 2027 accounting 4.4 billion subscriptions, it said. Eighty per cent of this growth will come from the switch from 4G to 5G enabled devices while a smaller contribution will be made by fixed wireless access and captive private networks. The interest among enterprises to use 5G services remains high and a study by Ericsson and research consultancy Omdia found that 52 per cent of enterprises want to start using 5G within the next 12 months.

In India commercial 5G services are expected to be rolled out in August. Spectrum auction will be held on July 26 with companies bidding for airwaves in multiple bands.