India adds 13 mn mobile phone users in July-Sep

As many as China and the US combined: Report

India continues to lead in adding new mobile subscriptions globally. It added 13 million new connections in the third quarter of 2015. This was followed by China, which added seven million mobile subscribers, the US (6 million), Myanmar (5 million) and Nigeria (4 million), according to Ericsson Mobility Report for 2015. Overall, there were 87 million new mobile subscriptions in the third quarter of 2015.

Of the 7.4-billion mobile phone subscriptions globally during the period under review, 3.4 billion were mobile broadband subscribers. There will be 9.1 billion mobile subscribers in 2021, the report forecast. Globally, smart phone subscriptions are set to increase from 3.4 billion in 2015 to 6.4 billion by 2021.

Against the global average of 99 per cent, mobile phone penetration in India is pegged at 77 per cent, leaving room for further uptake in numbers in the coming years.

Globally, mobile data traffic growth is expected to increase at a compounded annual growth rate of 45 per cent between 2015 and 2021, the report said. There has been a 65 per cent growth in data traffic between the third quarter of 2014 and the same period in 2015, driven by an increase in smart phone usage. Around 90 per cent of mobile data traffic will be from smartphones by the end of 2021, the report said. The Asia-Pacific region will account for 40 per cent of total smartphone traffic by the end of 2021.

In 2015, around 15 per cent of mobile data traffic came from social networking. Videos accounted for around 50 per cent of the traffic. The report forecast that by 2021, nearly 70 per cent of all mobile data traffic will be driven by video.

According to Peter Jonsson, project manager for the Ericsson Mobility Report, the continued rise in mobile data traffic around the world - including India - is due to attractive data plans, and the increased availability of affordable smartphones and tablets. “Another key driver to rising mobile data usage among consumers is the growth of video consumption on mobile devices, at home and on-the-go,” Jonsson said.

Citing Ericsson ConsumerLab studies carried out in 2014, Jonsson said on an average, Indian smartphone users spend three hours a day on their smartphones, and 25 per cent of them check their phones around 100 times a day.

One-third of the time spent on smartphones is used for apps - primarily chat, social media and gaming, he added.

Studies by Ericsson ConsumerLab showed that between 2012 and 2014, there has been an increase of 20 per cent in the overall time spent on smartphones, and a 65 percent rise in app usage.

The emerging trend of viewing videos on mobile devices has led to consumers spending more time on their smartphones than watching TV. “Indian smartphone users now spend 191 minutes a day on smartphones compared with 128 minutes in front of TVs,” Jonsson said. Around 65 per cent of mobile broadband smartphone users in India prefer video streaming to downloading videos on handsets. Monthly mobile data consumption in India is expected to increase 18-fold by 2020 over the current levels, Jonsson said.