Spending on mobile services in India will increase 4 percent to $21.4 billion in 2015, according to Gartner.
Data services are expected to grow 15 percent to $6.5 million in 2015. A large chunk of this growth will be driven by the increasing use of cellular services on data-centric devices, such as tablets and notebooks, through either embedded cellular modems or USB sticks.
Mobile connections in India will grow 5 percent to 880 million in 2015 from 837 million connections in 2014.
“In India, the rise in spending on data-only connections will be driven by two user scenarios – first, to complement their fixed broadband connectivity, so they can use their larger-screen data-centric devices on the go. In other use cases, data-only connections will be the way for consumers to access broadband connectivity because of a lack of fixed networks,” said Neha Gupta, senior research analyst at Gartner.
Spending on data services will also be heavily driven by mobile apps, particularly mobile video apps. Apps and content are driving traffic volume as people increasingly chat to friends and family, watch videos on the move, and listen to streamed music.
Baburajan K
editor@telecomlead.com
