We all know India offers one of the lowest data rates in the world, and now the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has pointed out that users in India have been making merry by consuming huge amount of data.
The volume of total wireless data usage increased from 46,404 million gigabytes during the year 2018 and this year it is expected to surpass all the previous data since it has already touched of 54,917 million gigabytes till September 2019, according to a TRAI analysis.
In addition to this, TRAI also mentioned the total number of wireless data subscribers in India stands at 664.80 million as of end of September 2019.
The regulator said the last four years have witnessed unprecedented growth in wireless data usage for communication and entertainment.
With the entry of a new TSP using Long Term Evolution (LTE)/4G technology and the subsequent gradual adaptation of this technology by the leading incumbents, data usage has grown by leaps and bounds, and it is expected to grow further in future also.
In 2018, 46,406 million GB data was used and in 2017, it was 20,092 million GB. Before 2016, only 4642 million GB data were used, the analysis noted.
All this growth can be attributed to the upgradation of mobile networks from 2G to 4G across the country, along with the availability of smartphones at relatively affordable prices which has brought more people to the internet.
On one hand, with the steep decline in tariffs of telecom services, affordability has increased, on the other hand the content, not only in English and Hindi, but in regional languages also, is readily available at affordable prices to the consumers. As a result, consumption of data has increased multi fold. This trend hasn’t gone unnoticed by the industry.
Many startups and global companies are fine tuning their products to localise and cater to features that are still the go-to means of shopping, communicating in the non-metro regions of the country.
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