India’s investment in private wireless networks is expected to reach nearly $250 million by 2027, according to a report by Nokia, which also says mobile data usage in the country has tripled in the past five years.
Nokia’s annual Mobile Broadband Index (MBiT) report pointed to a significant acceleration in business investment and forecast a large rollout of 5G from the second half of 2023.
Business spending on private 5G networks is being driven by new use cases in various industries including manufacturing, utilities, transport and healthcare in India, among others, according to the report.
“India’s investment in private wireless networks is expected to reach around US$250 million (around Rs.2,067 billion) by 2027,” the report said.
The report found that mobile data traffic in India has increased 3.2 times over the past five years. Total monthly mobile data usage in India increased from 4.5 exabytes in 2018 to 14.4 exabytes in 2022.
In addition, the average data consumption per user has increased “strongly” since 2018 and reached 19.5 GB per user per month in 2022. For comparison: That corresponds to 6,600 songs.
The average monthly traffic per user was set at 9.7 GB in 2018 and has grown at a compound annual growth rate of 19 percent through 2022.
At an aggregate level, total mobile data consumption in India is expected to more than double by 2024, Nokia report said.
“The appetite and need for data in India is really big,” said Amit Marwah, Head of Marketing and Corporate Affairs, Nokia India.
It is estimated that over 70 million 5G devices will be shipped to India in 2022, underscoring strong traction for India 5G on the market.
Sanjay Malik, Senior Vice President and Head of India Market at Nokia, noted that India has seen massive mobile broadband adoption due to the successful rollout of 4G LTE (Long-Term Evolution) networks.
“We believe 5G will take mobile broadband consumption in India to the next level by enabling new digital use cases for both consumer and enterprise segments. It is vital that this growth is managed in a sustainable manner while supporting India’s goal of becoming a trillion dollar digital economy,” said Malik.
