Consumer spending on mobile services soared in October-December, driven by World Cup

Kolkata: Consumer spending on mobile services jumped sequentially in the October-December quarter of 2023, driven by the cricket World Cup, which galvanised smartphone sales in the festive season, propelled strong customer upgrades from 2G to 4G/5G services and boosted data usage levels.

Consumer spending (after GST) on mobile services rose 2.5% sequentially to around Rs 54,750 crore during the period —the third quarter of FY24 — as per the latest sector performance data released by Trai. In the fiscal second quarter, this growth was 1.84%. Spending on data was Rs 47,560.3 crore, up 3.4% from the previous quarter when the sequential growth was 3%.