The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has released the latest statistics, indicating a lower-than-expected demand for 5G services among Indian telecom operators at the end of March 2024.
According to the report from TRAI, 5G data usage accounted for only 16.89 percent of the total mobile data usage during the January-March quarter of 2024. This suggests that the majority of Indians continue to rely on 4G networks for their data connectivity needs.
TRAI’s report breaks down the contribution of different network technologies to the total volume of wireless data usage. During the quarter ending in March 2024, 2G accounted for 0.08 percent, 3G for 0.56 percent, 4G for 82.46 percent, and 5G for 16.89 percent.
Indian telecom operators have started offering 5G services in a number of cities and towns in 2022 — promosing faster and more reliable internet connectivity. The recent data indicates that customers, who is buying 5G data on costly 5G smartphones, are not happy or they are not spending time on phones.
India’s mobile data usage saw a quarterly increase of 6.24 percent, rising from 49,543 petabytes (PB) in Q4 2023 to 52,636 PB in Q1 2024. Notably, 5G data usage was 8,891 PB, while 4G data usage dominated with 43,406 PB. The data usage for 2G and 3G was 43 PB and 297 PB, respectively.
The latest CRISIL report indicates that Capex-to-sales ratio (capital expenditure) of top telecom operators will start decreasing at they completed the roll out of 5G network in India. Telecom analysts indicate adoption of 5G smartphones and expansion of 5G network, which should be reliable for smartphone customers, will be the key growth driver for the uptake in 5G services.
The total number of mobile data subscribers grew from 896.68 million at the end of December 2023 to 913.34 million by the end of March 2024. However, TRAI did not disclose the specific number of 4G and 5G subscribers for Vodafone Idea, Reliance Jio, and Bharti Airtel.
Additionally, the number of internet subscribers increased from 936.16 million in December 2023 to 954.40 million in March 2024, marking a quarterly growth rate of 1.95 percent. Among these, 924.07 million were broadband subscribers, while 30.34 million were narrowband subscribers. Wired internet subscribers saw a growth of 4.40 percent, reaching 40.27 million by March 2024, whereas mobile internet subscribers increased by 1.84 percent to 914.13 million.
Reliance Jio continued to dominate the market with a 50.40 percent share of internet subscribers, followed by Bharti Airtel at 30.47 percent and Vodafone Idea at 14.39 percent.
In the wired internet segment, Reliance Jio held a 27.99 percent market share with 11.27 million subscribers, while Bharti Airtel had 7.73 million subscribers.
In the mobile internet segment, Reliance Jio had 469.73 million subscribers, representing a 51.39 percent market share, followed by Bharti Airtel with 30.97 percent and 283.10 million subscribers.
The top five broadband service providers, including both wired and wireless segments, were Reliance Jio with 481.01 million subscribers, Bharti Airtel with 273.23 million, Vodafone Idea with 127.69 million, BSNL with 24.70 million, and Atria Convergence with 2.25 million.
In the wired broadband segment, Reliance Jio Infocomm held a 28.14 percent market share with 11.27 million subscribers, followed by Bharti Airtel with 7.73 million subscribers.
In the mobile broadband segment, Reliance Jio maintained a dominant position with a 53.14 percent market share and 469.73 million subscribers, while Bharti Airtel held a 30.03 percent share with 265.50 million subscribers.
Baburajan Kizhakedath
