3G finally becomes mainstream in India: Report

With the number of 3G devices sold growing 84 per cent, the subscriber base too went up 65 per cent, according to the Nokia Mobile Broadband India Traffic Index.

The 3G coverage gap also reduced in 2014 to under 10 per cent. It was 20 to 30 per cent in 2013. As a result the total data traffic went up from from 49 petabytes in 2013 to 85 petabytes in 2014. 3G constituted 52% of total data consumed in 2014, up from 42 per cent in 2013, says the study.

It would be wrong to call 3G an urban phenomenon as Category A cities attributed for the highest 3G growth, ahead of the Metro circle. In Metros, 3G data grew at 120 per cent in 2014, but category A cities clocked 129 per cent growth. At 20 per cent, Metro circle ranked 3rd in terms of contribution to data usage. Category A circle contributes the most (43 per cent) to the overall mobile data consumption in India. The report said this shows a positive correlation between the leading 3G category circle and the overall data category circle.

Interestingly, the average Indian subscriber consumes 680 MB/ month of 3G data.

In 2014, 258 million devices were shipped into India, of which 22 per cent were 3G devices. Of these 54 per cent supported peak data speed of 21 Mbps in 2014 vs. 23 per cent in 2013. A high 72 per cent 3G devices were 900 MHz band equipped, while all were 2100 MHz compatible.

To read the full Nokia Mobile Broadband India Traffic Index report, visit MBiT 2015.