India will have 270 million 5G subscribers by the end of 2024, accounting for 23 percent of the mobile subscription in the country, Swedish telecom gear maker Ericsson has said in its mobility report. The country had 110-120 million 5G subscribers in the previous year.
Enhanced mobile broadband and fixed wireless access (FWA) have emerged as the initial 5G use cases. 4G continues to be the dominant subscription type, contributing 54 percent of the total mobile subscriptions.
Ericsson said India will corner 20 percent share in terms of subscription of the global FWA market by 2030.
Fixed wireless access is a wireless connection that provides broadband to a specific location such as a home or business premises. It allows consumers to connect to the network and access high-speed internet via radio signal without the need for cables.
In India, Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel offer 5G services. While Airtel offers services on non-standalone architecture, Jio offers services using more advanced standalone architecture (SA).
A strong 5G uptake is expected to bring down 4G subscriptions, which are forecast to decline from 640 million in 2024 to 240 million in 2030, contributing around 18 percent of the total mobile subscriptions, the report said.
India has made large-scale mid-band deployments and is expected to reach around 95 percent population coverage by the end of 2024.
The country has the highest average monthly usage per smartphone at 32 GB compared to 19 GB global average.
“India already has the highest average monthly usage per smartphone at 32 GB, which is expected to grow to 66 GB by 2030, growing at a CAGR of 13 percent,” Umang Jindal, head of network solutions of South East Asia, Oceania and India at Ericsson, said.
The Swedish telecom gear maker said early deployments of 6G expected in 2030.
In the report, Ericsson said that 5G standalone and 5G Advanced are expected to be key focus areas globally as telcos deploy new capabilities to create offerings centered around value delivery rather than data volumes.
Globally, 5G is set to carry 80 percent or mobile data globally by 2030, Ericsson said.
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