The Wire Staff 
New Delhi: Mobile data consumption per individual in India has surged fourfold over the past five years, rising from 5 GB to over 20 GB per person per month, according to a top official from a leading Indian telecom company.
“Internet consumption is at an all-time high as against a 5 GB data being consumed five years ago per individual per month, an average mobile user now consumes as much as 20 GB of internet every month,” Abhijit Kishore, COO, Vodafone Idea told Chandigarh-based newspaper The Tribune.
He explained that the surge in consumption is driven by factors such as the proliferation of content, network expansion, affordable data plans, and a wide range of affordable devices. The internet is rich with various types of content, including regional material, contributing to the increase in usage.
In the realm of the proliferation of content, the industry insider said that it included the growth of OTT platforms and online gaming. Live streaming of mega sports events like the cricket World Cup and football World Cup has also boosted data consumption, he added.
The newspaper also quoted Amit Marwah, Nokia India’s head of marketing and corporate affairs, stating that data consumption in India has increased by 20% year-on-year to 17.4 exabytes per month. “It is one of the highest data consumption in the world. On average, an individual subscriber is consuming 24 GB of data per month. This shows the appetite for data consumption in India is too high”.
The report highlighted that Reliance Jio’s financial results for the last quarter of 2023-24 showed a 2.4-fold increase in annual data traffic over the past three years, with per capita monthly data usage rising from 13.3 GB to 28.7 GB.
With some of the lowest tariff rates in the world, the high data usage is not a surprise. However, it remains to be seen whether the exponential growth in data usage will continue unhindered in future following the new tariff hikes.
Last month, Jio, which holds around 41% market share, announced a tariff increase of 12% to 27% starting July 3 and plans to restrict access to unlimited free 5G services. Following this, Bharti Airtel announced a 10%-21% hike in pre-paid and post-paid mobile tariffs. This marks the first time in nearly three years that the telecom industry has raised tariffs.