India's 5G subscriptions to reach 1.1 billion by 2031, says Ericsson report

New Delhi: India's 5G subscriptions are projected to cross 1.1 billion by the end of 2031, accounting for 81 percent subscription penetration, according to a report by Swedish telecom gear maker Ericsson.

At the end of 2025, 5G subscriptions reached 430 million and accounted for 35 percent of total mobile subscriptions, the Ericsson Mobility report said.

India also continues to lead globally in mobile data consumption per smartphone -- the average monthly usage already at 37 GB is expected to nearly double to 70 GB by 2031.

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The country is witnessing rapid 5G adoption, driven by affordable 5G devices, extensive network coverage, and growing uptake of Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) services.

Uplink traffic is growing faster than downlink for many service providers -- in some instances, "significantly faster".

It noted that 5G adoption in India continues its growth momentum, driven by the availability of affordable 5G-enabled smartphones and devices, expanded network coverage across almost all districts, and the increasing rollout of 5G Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) services.

While 4G remains the dominant technology at 46 percent, subscriptions are forecast to decline from around 570 million in 2025 to nearly 160 million by 2031, as users migrate to 5G, it stated.

Nitin Bansal, Managing Director, Ericsson India, noted that India's rapidly growing 5G adoption is based on enhanced mobile broadband.

"The robust and secure 5G infrastructure in the country is driving inclusion, governance, and innovation at scale and is serving as a powerful foundation for Digital India," he further said.

Without naming Airtel, the report drew attention to "a significant development" where a service provider in India recently launched differentiated connectivity services based on network slicing for its postpaid 5G customers, signaling the evolution of advanced 5G use cases in the market.

Globally, 5G mobile subscriptions passed the three billion mark during the first quarter of 2026; 5G Standalone (SA) network slicing commercial offerings from communications service providers continue to grow significantly, while uplink mobile data traffic growth is already outpacing downlink for many service providers.

The 162 million new 5G subscriptions added globally during the first quarter of 2026 brought the total subscription to 3.1 billion subscriptions. This figure is expected to grow rapidly and is forecast to more than double (to 6.4 billion) by the end of 2031.

Some 390 service providers have launched commercial 5G services to date -- more than 90 of which have launched 5G Standalone.

5G networks handled 48 percent of all mobile data traffic at the end of 2025 -- a level expected to surge to 85 percent by the end of 2031.

Western Europe, North America, North East Asia and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries are forecast to have 5G mobile subscription adoption close to, or above, 90 percent by the end of 2031, as per the Ericsson report.

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The number of commercial differentiated connectivity service offerings based on 5G SA network slicing from service providers -- with the ability to deliver guaranteed quality of service for use cases through securing slices of the network, continues to grow at a pace, Ericsson said.

"With the upcoming transition to physical AI, traffic patterns will fundamentally shift as we move from centralised models in data centres to distributed, autonomous AI agents embedded across our device vehicles and cities, commonly connected by 5G," Erik Ekudden, CTO, Ericsson, said.

Speed-based tariff plans for fixed wireless access (FWA) also continue to appeal to service providers as a structured monetisation strategy targeting different market segments.

The share of FWA service providers offering the service over 5G has reached 71 percent -- up from 57 percent in June 2025 -- the largest annual increase in four years. Speed-based tariff plans are now offered by 57 percent of fixed wireless access service providers -- up from 51 percent a year ago.

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