The cost of mobile data has reduced drastically from Rs 269 per GB (in March 2014) to Rs. 9.08 per GB now which is a massive 96.6 per cent decrease, the Parliament was informed on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, the median mobile broadband speed increased from 1.30 Mbps in March 2014 to 95.67 Mbps (as of October) which is up almost 72 per cent, Union Minister for Communications, Jyotiraditya Scindia, said in a statement in the Lok Sabha.
"The average wireless usage of data per subscriber has increased to 22.24 GB per subscriber per month," he informed.
As of October, 24,96,644 BTS of 4G stand deployed across 783 districts.
"India has witnessed the quickest rollout of 5G services in the world with 4,62,084 BTS deployed across 779 districts," says the minister.
Last month, the country jumped up 11 slots in the 'Network Readiness Index 2024' and was placed at 49th rank globally.
India did not only upgrade to the better position but, as well, to enhance its score from 49.93 in 2023 up to 53.63 in 2024 through the index published by an independent non-profit research and educational institute based in Washington, DC, known as the Portulans Institute.
The country currently dominates some indicators such as AI, FTTH Internet Subscriptions and Mobile Broadband Internet Traffic, among others, according to the Ministry of Communications.
In the last ten years, tele-density increased from 75.2 per cent to 84.69 per cent and wireless connections reached 119 crore. Additionally, India launched 5G services in 2022, rapidly improving its global mobile broadband speed ranking from 118 to 15.
The latest Ericsson Mobility Report reveals that 5G subscriptions in India are expected to be around 970 million by the end of 2030, which will be 74 per cent of mobile subscriptions.
India has the highest average monthly usage per smartphone at 32 GB and is expected to grow to 66 GB by 2030.
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