5G subscriptions in India likely to cross one billion mark by 2031

India is expected to have over one billion 5G subscriptions by the end of 2031 the Ericsson Mobility Report released on Thursday said underscoring the steady uptake of the service in a nation that accounts for the highest mobile data traffic per smartphoneNotably the mobile data traffic per active smartphone in India is expected to climb to 65 GB per month by 2031 as against 36 GB per month now the highest in the worldThe report noted that 5G adoption in India is growing rapidly with subscriptions reaching 394 million at the end of 2025 accounting for 32 per cent of total mobile subscriptionsIt projects global 5G subscriptions at 64 billion by the end of 2031 accounting for twothirds of all mobile subscriptionsThe Mobile data traffic per active smartphone in India stands at 36 GB per month the highest in the world and is expected to grow to 65 GB per month by 2031 Nitin Bansal MD of Ericsson India said5G already serves as the critical infrastructure for driving digitalisation in the country he addedThe availability of affordable 5G FWA customer premises equipment CPE and high data consumption by FWA users are fueling data traffic growth in IndiaPut simply Fixed Wireless Access FWA is a wireless connection that provides broadband access to a specific location like a home or enterprise premisesAccording to the report as an ongoing major 5G use case enhanced mobile broadband is forecast to top 64 billion 5G subscriptions globally by the end of 2031 comprising about twothirds of all mobile subscriptions at the timeSome 41 billion of these subscriptions about 65 per cent are forecast to be 5G standalone that is a network that uses a dedicated 5G core allowing it to operate independently from existing 4G infrastructureOverall the mobile network data traffic grew 20 per cent between the third quarter of 2024 and the corresponding period in 2025 a slightly larger than expected increase driven by mainland China and India according to the reportContinued growth is forecast at an annual average of 16 per cent through 2031 according to the Ericsson Mobility Report 5G networks are expected to manage 43 per cent of all mobile data by the close of 2025 up from 34 per cent for the corresponding period last yearEMR Ericsson Mobility Report experts forecast this to increase to 83 per cent in 2031 Fixed Wireless Access FWA broadband continues to grow as a 5G use case it saidThe November 2025 report forecasts that about 14 billion people globally will access FWA broadband by the end of 2031 90 per cent of them via 5G5G Standalone 5G SA deployments have triggered a notable 2025 growth in the number of communications service providers CSPs offering differentiated connectivity commercial models based on network slicing where companies guarantee quality of service for customer use cases through the allocation of slices of the networkBased on previous mobile generation cycles subscriptions uptake inhouse researchers expect the first commercial launches to be driven by leading service providers in frontrunner markets such as the US Japan South Korea China India and some Gulf Cooperation Council countries it saidGlobal 6G subscriptions are forecast to reach 180 million by the end of 2031 excluding early adoption of AIenabled Internet of Things devicesThe subscription uptake number could increase significantly if 6G launches earlier than previous cycles indicateThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever