India to get 5G by 2022, mobile data traffic to triple by 2025: Ericsson

India is expected to get 5G  services in 2022, with users representing only 11 % of total mobile subscriptions in the country by the end of 2025, says a new report by networking giant Ericsson. 

Long Term Evolution. LTE will represent 80% of mobile subscriptions in India by 2025.

LTE is a 4G wireless communication standard. In its mobility report for 2019, Ericsson estimates LTE subscriptions to increase by 150 million during 2019 and pass GSM/EDGE as the most dominant 4G technology.   

Mobile broadband technologies will account for 57% of mobile subscriptions by the end of the year, with smartphone subscriptions increasing from 48% to 54%. Sweden-based Ericsson also said that 5G subscriptions will only be available in 2022 and will represent only 11% of mobile subscriptions by the end of 2025.

 “Modernising existing networks, improving network performance and increasing user experience continue to be at the core of every service provider’s day-to-day business, both in India as well as globally,” said Nitin Bansal, head of network solutions for the market area South East Asia, Oceania and India.

The average monthly mobile data usage per smartphone in India has seen a steep rise and is the highest in the world.

 “Low prices for mobile broadband services, affordable smartphones and people’s changing video viewing habits have continued to drive monthly usage growth in the region,” Bansal said in a statement. 

 By 2025, Ericsson predicts that 500 million smartphone users will be added in India, with the total traffic projected to increase threefold. The increase is attributed to high growth in the number of smartphone users and a rise in its everyday use.

Global numbers

From a global perspective, Ericsson expects the number of 5G subscriptions to reach 2.6 billion by 2025 due to a rapidly developing 5G ecosystem, with the average monthly data traffic per smartphone set to increase from 7.2 GB currently to 24 GB by 2025.

The report also stated that 5G will cover up to 65% of the global population by the end of 2025 and handle 45% of all mobile traffic.

While India is expected to switch to 5G in 2022, Asia, Australia, Europe, Middle East, and North America are expected to switch to 5G by the end of 2019. Meanwhile South Korea had launched 5G in April 2019 with three million subscribers already using 5G in the country.

China had also launched 5G in late October and the number is expected to rise from 10 million to 13 million by the end of 2019.