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NEW DELHI: Driven by increasing affordability of devices and services, the mobile subscriptions in India will reach 1.4 billion by 2020, resulting in a population penetration of 100 percent, the Ericsson Mobility Report says.
However, GSM/EDGE subscriptions will decline from 780 million in 2014 to around 510 million by 2020 as subscribers migrate to 3G services.
WCDMA/HSPA subscriptions will increase from over 120 million in 2014 to around 620 million by 2020, as the proportion of WCDMA/HSPA subscriptions in the total subscription base increases from 13 percent to 45 percent, the report says.
LTE subscriptions will contribute 17% to the total subscriptions, reaching more than 230 million by 2020.
The Ericsson Mobility Report shows key trends and forecasts on mobile traffic, subscriptions, consumer behavior and technology uptake specific to India.
GSM/EDGE technology currently has the widest reach in India, with 95 percent population coverage. WCDMA/HSPA covered more than 35 percent of the Indian population at the end of 2014, and is expected to cover approximately 90 percent by the end of 2020.
Besides, around 40 percent of the population will be covered by LTE networks by 2020.
In terms of demographics, the proportion of people aged over 50 who use smartphones quadrupled between 2013 and 2015. In the same period, there was a three-fold growth in the proportion of 31-40 year old mobile data users.
On an average, Indian smartphone users spend over three hours a day on their smartphones and 25 percent of them check their phones over 100 times a day.
Around one third of the time spent on smartphones is used for apps, primarily chat, social media, and gaming. 65 per cent of mobile broadband smartphone users in India prefer video streaming to downloading videos on handsets.
The number of smartphone subscriptions is expected to reach over 750 million by 2020, up from 130 million in 2014.
The continued growth in smartphone subscriptions will lead to an accelerated growth in data usage; monthly mobile data consumption is expected to increase 18-fold by the year 2020 over current levels.
Chris Houghton, Head of Region India, Ericsson, says: “Maintaining and improving quality of the user experience is likely to be at the top of Indian operators’ agenda over the coming years. A network with a mix of macro sites, micro sites and small cells will need to be established to manage coverage, capacity and network performance for the best user experience and to meet the growing demand for data services”.