4G contributed nearly 99% of all data traffic in India in 2020: Nokia report

According to the 2021 MBiT report, India's fixed broadband subscriber count stands at 22 million and the country poses significant growth opportunities both in terms of FTTx and FWA to generate a new revenue stream for operators.

India's data traffic grew approximately 60 times in the last 5 years (2015-2020) which is amongst the highest globally and 4G constituted nearly 99% of total data traffic consumed across the country in 2020, according to a new report from Nokia.

The Nokia Mobile Broadband India Traffic (MBiT) Index report provides valuable insights on the mobile broadband performance and traffic growth in India. The 2020 edition of MBiT Index evaluates 3G, 4G and overall data traffic growth trends at a pan-India, data consumption and data usage pattern, developments on the content and OTT side and FTTx and Fixed Wireless Access (FWA), among others.

According to the report, India stands tall amongst the mature markets in data consumption with over 13.5GB of data usage per subscriber per month in December 2020. While 3G data traffic showed its highest ever decline of 56%, continued 4G consumption led to 36% YoY growth in overall data traffic in 2020.

Other key highlights of MBiT Index 2020 report include:

• 4G subscribers surpassed 700 million with 100 million new additions
• 4G alone constituted nearly 99% of the total data traffic consumed across the country with category A & B circles accounting for 76% of total data traffic
• 4G device base reflected a continuous growth of 20% in 2020 and Voice over LTE (VoLTE) devices constituted 93% of the total LTE handsets
• About 100 million subscribers having LTE capable devices are still on 2G/3G services
• 2 million active 5G devices are already in use across the country
• The smartphone industry is expected to witness double-digit growth in 2021 as people are embracing hybrid work models, e-learning, and consuming content over OTT platforms.

Further, India is one of the highest consumers of data per day. With nearly 5 hours of daily time spent on smartphones, the country has surpassed China in terms of per day data consumption.

According to the 2021 MBiT report, India's fixed broadband subscriber count stands at 22 million and the country poses significant growth opportunities both in terms of FTTx and FWA to generate a new revenue stream for operators.