5G subscribers consuming 3.6-times more data than 4G users: Nokia

Finnish telecom gear maker Nokia on Wednesday said that India has now over 131 million 5G users, and that they were consuming nearly 3.6-times more data than the 4G users.

Nokia, in its annual India Mobile Broadband Index report, has said that at the end of 2023, India had 131 million 5G users. The figure is set to rise to 575 million in 2026, or half of all subscribers in India, it added.

The fifth generation services were launched in October 2022 by Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio.

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The report said that on an average, users consumed 17.4 exabytes (EB) of data per month in 2023, with a compound annual growth rate of (CAGR) of 26% over the past five years. The average monthly data traffic per user also surged by 24 percent year-on-year in 2023, reaching 24.1 gigabytes per user per month.

Overall, 5G made up 15 per cent of all data traffic across telecom circles as of December, 2023.

The report pointed out the gap between users and available number of devices is also bridging fast with the country having 134 million 5G capable devices in 2023, or 17 percent of all available devices.

In terms of spectrum bands, all 5G devices in India are supported through the 3500 MHz, and the least through the 2300 MHz band.

Rising fast

20% 5G data traffic share in metro circles in Dec, '23
 

24.1 GB average mobile data usage in India in Dec, '23
 

575 million 5G users in India by 2026