- India will have 110 crore 5G users by 2031.
- As 4G users migrate to 5G, monthly data consumption will increase.
- Industries will get special benefits from 5G standalone services.
- Rapid expansion of 5G in the world, upload traffic increased.
Mobile Data: 5G is expanding rapidly in India and this technology can completely change the digital landscape of the country in the coming years. According to the new mobility report of telecom device manufacturer ericsson.com, the number of 5G users in India may exceed 110 crore by the year 2031. This figure will be about 81 percent of the total mobile subscriptions in the country. Cheap 5G smartphones, better network coverage and expansion of fixed wireless access (FWA) services are considered to be the main reasons for this.
Indian users are rapidly moving towards 5G
According to the report, by the end of 2025, there were about 43 crore 5G subscribers in India, which was about 35 percent of the total mobile connections. At present, 4G network remains the most used technology and its share is about 46 percent. However, this situation is going to change in the coming years. It is estimated that the number of 4G users will reduce from about 57 crore in 2025 to about 16 crore by 2031 as most of the users will shift towards 5G networks.
India ahead of the world in mobile data consumption
India already leads the world in terms of mobile data usage per smartphone. Currently an Indian smartphone user spends about 37GB of data every month on an average. The report estimates that by 2031 this consumption may increase to around 70GB per month. The main reasons behind this are the increasing popularity of video streaming, cloud based services and new digital applications.
Beginning of new experiments in 5G network
It has also been told in the report that now advanced 5G usage has started in the Indian telecom market, moving beyond the old internet services. Recently, a telecom company has launched different types of connectivity services for postpaid customers through 5G Standalone (SA) network slicing technology. It is believed that in the coming time, the use of 5G will not be limited only to fast internet but will also be used for industries and special services.
Growing impact of 5G around the world
5G is also expanding rapidly globally. In the first quarter of 2026, 5G subscriptions worldwide have crossed the figure of 310 crores. The report estimates that by 2031 this number may increase to more than 640 crores. Currently, about 390 telecom operators are providing commercial 5G services while more than 90 operators have deployed 5G standalone networks.
Upload traffic is increasing faster than downloads
An interesting change has also been mentioned in Ericsson’s report. Now the growth of upload traffic on many telecom networks is faster than download traffic. Due to the increasing use of video sharing, social media content creation, online assistant apps and cloud storage services, people are uploading more data than ever before. This is the reason why a big change is being seen in the pattern of network traffic.
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