5G surge drives India’s mobile data to new highs

New Delhi: India’s average monthly mobile data consumption per user crossed 31 GB in 2025, up from 27.5 GB in 2024, according to the latest Mobile Broadband Index report by Nokia.

The report highlights a sharp rise in 5G adoption, with total 5G data traffic surging 70 per cent year-on-year to 12.9 exabytes (EB) per month. As a result, 5G now accounts for nearly 47 per cent of India’s overall mobile broadband traffic.

The increase in consumption reflects growing demand for data-intensive applications such as AI-driven services, 4K video streaming, and cloud gaming. Over the past five years, average monthly data usage per user has grown at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 18 per cent.

Overall mobile data traffic in India crossed 27 EB per month in 2025, registering a CAGR of 21.7 per cent over the same period. India now ranks among the top global markets, with the second-largest 5G subscriber base, second-highest 5G data consumption, and second-largest Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) user base. FWA has emerged as a major growth driver, contributing over 25 per cent of total 5G data traffic, supported by a two-fold increase in subscribers year-on-year.

Metro circles continue to lead adoption, with 5G accounting for 58 per cent of total data usage in these areas. On the device front, India had 892 million active 4G devices in 2025, including over 383 million 5G-capable smartphones.

The transition to 5G is being accelerated by a ten-fold rise in shipments of budget smartphones priced below $100, with over 90 per cent of all smartphones shipped during the year supporting 5G.