4G subscribers to reach 280 million by 2020

The number of 4G connections in India is forecast to grow rapidly growing from just 3 million at the end of 2015 to 280 million by 2020 according to a new report released by GSMA Intelligence.

As of mid-2016, around 430 million people had access to mobile internet services, a figure that will increase to almost 670 million by 2020, or about half the population. GSMA Intelligence forecasts that India will have 390 million 3G subscribers by 2020.

The new report, The Mobile Economy: India 2016, noted that at the end of June 2016, 616 million unique users had subscribed to mobile services in India, making it the second-largest mobile market globally, with almost one billion unique mobile subscribers expected by 2020.

India also overtook the United States in 2016 to become the worlds second-largest smartphone market with an installed base of 275 million devices.

The report forecasts that improving affordability, falling device prices and operator investments in network coverage and quality will help deliver an additional 330 million unique subscribers in India by 2020, lifting the country’s penetration rate to 68 per cent of the population up from 47 per cent in 2015.

The industry is set to invest heavily, with operator CAPEX growing to $34 billion (Rs 2.3 lakh crore) for the period 2016 to 2020.

Mats Granryd, director general, GSMA said, "To fully realise Indias tremendous market potential, review and reform in key areas, including modernising regulation and long-term planning for spectrum allocation, would accelerate mobile broadband access and adoption across the country."

In 2015, Indias mobile industry generated economic value equivalent to 6.5 per cent of the countrys GDP, a contribution that amounts to more than $140 billion. The figure accounts for both the direct economic activity generated by mobile operators and the ecosystem of mobile industries in India. This contribution is expected to grow to $210 billion by 2020.

Mobile operators and the ecosystem provided direct employment to approximately 2.2 million people in India, as well as indirectly supporting 1.8 million additional jobs in other industries and sectors that benefit from the activity of the mobile industry, particularly in the direct supply chain. This brings the total impact of the mobile industry to nearly 4 million jobs in 2015.