Mobile data consumption to grow four-fold but Wi-Fi may ground operator revenues

Key Highlights

• Overall mobile data traffic could multiply 4-fold through fiscal 2022
• Data Consumption to reach 2.5 GB per user per month.
• Dependence on Wi-Fi to increase in India. 

A taste of Reliance Jio’s freebies exposed India to high data consumption in the ending months of 2016. A report by CRISIL research on Tuesday showed that mobile data usage per user will reach 2.5GB per month in the next five years.

“Indeed, peak data usage for RJio reached 5-6 GB compared with 1.25 GB for the industry during the free services period. Many are betting the overall industry usage will gradually reach RJio’s peak levels,” the report said.

“CRISIL Research expects mobile data usage growth to moderate to ~12% annually and touch 2-2.5 GB per user in the five fiscals through 2022, and stabilise thereafter,” the analysts said.

Internet penetration in India is relatively low. "Urban internet usage is nearly 68-70% in comparison rural is only 13%," telecom analyst from Care Ratings, Gaurav Dixit said.

India ranked last among top LTE markets.

Can Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Jio force rural India to do what other telecom companies couldn't?