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New Delhi: Number of subscribers of the fifth generation (5G) telecom service, which was launched in India in October 2022, is likely to jump to 100 crore by 2031 from around 40 crore estimated by the end of this year, an industry report shows.
As per the latest Ericsson Mobility Report released on Thursday, the fifth generation services account for around 32 per cent of total mobile phone subscriptions in the country now. This is estimated to increase to 79 per cent by 2031.
Mobile data usage per active smartphone in India is 36 GB per month, the highest globally, and is projected to rise to 65 GB per month by 2031.
”5G is already today serving as the critical infrastructure for driving digitalisation in the country” said Nitin Bansal, Managing Director, Ericsson India.
He said the availability of affordable 5G fixed wireless access (FWA) customer premises equipment (CPE) and high data consumption from FWA users is fueling the data traffic growth in India.
Globally, 5G subscriptions are expected to rise to 2.9 billion by the end of 2025, accounting for roughly one-third of all mobile subscriptions. By 2031, the number of 5G subscribers is estimated to rise to 6.4 billion, making up about two-thirds of all mobile subscriptions.
In geographical coverage terms, 2025 saw an increase of 400 million people worldwide being able to access 5G. About 50 per cent of the global population beyond mainland China is expected to have 5G coverage by the end of 2025, the report noted.
The 5G networks are expected to manage 43 per cent of all mobile data by the close of 2025, up from 34 per cent last year. As per the Ericsson Mobility Report, this number is estimated to increase to 83 per cent in 2031.
Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) broadband continues to grow as a 5G use case. The report forecasts that about 1.4 billion people globally are expected to access FWA broadband by the end of 2031, out of which 90 per cent will be via 5G.
The report also included early forecasts for the sixth generation (6G) telecom services, which is yet to be commercially launched. Global 6G subscriptions are projected to touch 180 million (18 crore) by 2031. The US, Japan, South Korea, China, India and the GCC countries are likely to be the front-runners in 6G deployments.