Indians spend over 240 hours/month on the Internet; data usage jumps 3x in 5 years: Report

Do you know how much Internet data an average Indian uses per month? According to a report, an Indian on an average browses the internet for over 240 hours, which is equivalent to streaming about 6600 songs or watching over 40 hours of standard-definition video. 

Considering data usage on gigabytes (GB) measurement, average data consumption per user in India has reached 19.5 GB per month in 2022, which is about three-fold of the data used by Indians in 2018, as per Nokia's Mobile Broadband Index (MBiT) annual report. 

Data consumption in India is expected to more than double by 2024

According to news agency ANI, the report released on Thursday revealed that mobile data traffic in India has jumped 3.2 times in the last five years, reaching over 14 exabytes per month. It also has brought the fact that pan-India mobile data usage per month has grown from 4.5 exabytes in 2018 to 14.4 exabytes in 2022. An exabyte is equal to a million gigabytes.

The MBiT report includes many key takeaways about the evolution of the Indian mobile market, including mobile data consumption and growth, the ongoing transition from 4G to 5G as well as the prospects for enterprise adoption of the fifth-generation mobile system (5G) with private networks.

According to the report, 4G and 5G subscribers together now account for almost 100 per cent of the total mobile data traffic in the country. Increase in mobile data consumption also coincides with the launch of commercial 5G services in the country in October 2022, as Communication Service Providers (CSPs) deploy 5G networks and expand to newer areas quickly.

At an aggregate level, the total mobile data consumption in India is expected to more than double by 2024.

According to the report, over 70 million 5G devices were estimated to have been shipped to India in 2022, indicating strong traction for 5G in the market.

MBIT 2023 highlighted a significant acceleration in enterprise investment and said that enterprise spending on private 5G networks will be driven by new use cases in diverse industry verticals, including manufacturing, utilities, transportation and healthcare among others in India. 

It is being expected that India's investment in private wireless networks will reach around USD 250 million by 2027.

Senior Vice-President and Head of the India Market, Nokia, Sanjay Malik said, "India has seen a massive uptake of mobile broadband based on successful deployment of 4G LTE (Long-Term Evolution) networks. We believe that 5G will take mobile broadband consumption to the next level in India by enabling new digital use cases for both consumer and enterprise segments."

Malik asserted, it is essential that the growth is managed in a sustainable manner while supporting India's aim to become a trillion-dollar digital economy.