India narrows mobile internet speed gap with US, China
Ookla
showed.
Ookla's data showed India had a median download speed of 136.53 Mbps in the April to June period, having moved up 93 spots from No. 119 in September 2022, driven by rapidly expanding 5G coverage.
In comparison, the US ranked 13th and China 8th, with median download speeds of 176.75 Mbps and 207.98 Mbps, respectively.
According to the
Ericsson Mobility Report
, the per capita data consumption in India is the world's highest at 32 GB per month. It is 29 GB in China and 22 GB in the US.
'India witnessed a landmark transformation in its digital connectivity with the commercial launch of 5G in October 2022, propelling one of the world's fastest nationwide 5G network expansions,' said Affandy Johan, industry analyst, Ookla. 'This launch had a dramatic influence on download speeds across the country.'
According to EY, 5G towers already account for about 57% of the total telecom towers in India. It said the country's 5G subscriber base reached 326 million at the end of March, accounting for some 28% of the total wireless connections.
At the end of December 2024, India's average monthly 5G data usage per user stood at 40 GB, almost 1.5 times the average mobile data consumption.
Industry experts said telecom companies in India spent nearly Rs 1.40 lakh crore in capital expenditure on 5G between FY23 and FY25, according to industry estimates.
Vodafone Idea
attributed the growth in both quality and quantity of telecom consumption in India to several factors, including low cost of data, rapid penetration of affordable smartphones, and sustained, large-scale investments by telecom operators in expanding both capacity and coverage.
Reliance Jio and
Bharti Airtel
did not respond to ET's queries.
?Indian telcos have a fine record of always putting consumer affordability on priority despite at times that not being commensurate with their own cost to serve or produce,' said Sandip Das, a telecom veteran who has headed Reliance Jio and Hutchison Essar (now Vodafone Idea). 'This has led to largescale adoption and the fastest scale up to over a billion users.'
Prashant Singhal, TMT emerging markets leader at EY Global said telecom operators need to balance revenue with network investments.
'Introducing tiered 5G pricing plans customised for different customer segments (e.g., heavy data users and gamers paying a premium) or for the matter content bundling with 5G plans would go a long way in enhancing customer value proposition,' Singhal said.
Vinish Bawa, partner and leader, telecom, at PwC India, said that to sustain the pace of 5G expansion, telcos in India need to sharpen focus on rural coverage and plug indoor coverage gaps, besides investment in edge and cloud infrastructure to prepare for the AI-native future, while the government needs to ensure faster clearances for infrastructure deployment.
Digital acceleration
India's 600 million-strong smartphone base has also caused a big shift in digital acceleration.
For instance, in 2024, Indians spent 4.9 hours per day on phone apps, a 3.1% growth over 2023, said EY, adding that in aggregate, India spent more than 1.1 trillion hours on digital platforms, higher than any other market worldwide.
Meanwhile, subscription-based video of demand (SVOD) services increased five times in 2024 as compared with 2019, according to data from EY.
India's digital payment ecosystem is also riding on greater smartphone penetration. Some 460 million people and 65 million merchants are using the Unified Payments Interface (UPI).
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