Smartphone users willing to pay 66% premium for 5G

India has the highest average data usage per smartphone, reaching 9.8 GB per month at the end of 2018, according to a new study by Swedish telecom equipment maker Ericsson.

The report, released on Wednesday, also forecasts that this figure is likely to double to 18 GB per month per smartphone by 2024.

“Increased numbers of LTE subscriptions, attractive data plans being offered by service providers, and young people’s changing video viewing habits have driven monthly usage growth,” Nitin Bansal, head of Ericsson India and head of network solutions, southeast Asia, Oceania and India, said.

In 2018, mobile data traffic per smartphone per month stood at 7 GB for North America, 3.1 GB for Latin America, 6.7 GB for Western Europe, 4.5 GB for Central and Eastern Europe, 3 GB for Middle East and Africa, 7.1 GB for northeast Asia and 3.6 GB for southeast Asia and Oceania region. “Mobile video traffic is fuelling the total data traffic as users are spending more time streaming and sharing video. This is expected to continue, as video is embedded in all types of online content… we see monthly data usage per smartphone increasing from 9.8 GB in 2018 to 18 GB by 2024 [in India], growing at 11% CAGR,” Mr. Bansal added.

Nitin Bansal.

The ‘Ericsson Mobility Report’ added that total smartphone subscriptions in the region is likely to reach 1.1 billion by 2024, growing at 11% CAGR, while the total mobile broadband subscriptions in India are expected to grow from about 610 million in 2018 to 1.25 billion in 2024.

Mr. Bansal said that LTE would remain the most dominant access technology in the region up to 2024, even as 5G subscriptions are expected to grow during this period.

Interestingly, according to Ericsson, Indian smartphone users are willing to pay more than 66% premium for 5G services.

“In fact, more than half of smartphone users in India expect their own provider to switch to 5G or will wait for a maximum of six months before moving to another provider that does,” Mr. Bansal said.