Low-cost 4G smartphone launch to fuel data consumption, says Nokia report

NEW DELHI : India’s overall data traffic, which grew 36% year-on-year in 2020, will rise further once a low-cost smartphone for 4G wireless service is launched, said a report by Nokia. The entry of such a device will prompt a significant chunk of 2G and 3G subscribers to migrate to 4G.

Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) chair Mukesh Ambani, while announcing the Jio Platforms Ltd and Google LLC partnership at his company’s annual meeting in July 2020, had said the American technology giant would build an Android operating system (OS) to power a low-cost “4G or even 5G” smartphone that would be designed by Jio.

Of the total data traffic last calendar year, 4G accounted for 98.7% of internet consumed across the country, Nokia said in its India Mobile Broadband Index 2021 report. Data consumption in 3G showed the highest ever decline of 56% in 2020.