MWC 2019 India Report: India to Emerge as 2nd Largest Smartphone Superpower by 2025

The highly anticipated and popular annual event GSMA Mobile World Congress 2019, which this year revolves around intelligent connectivity marking the beginning of a new era of highly contextualised and personalised experiences, has begun. The MWC 2019 Barcelona convenes the industry to share innovation, explore trends and hear from today's leaders and influencers.

Widely considered the mobile industry’s “must-attend’’ annual event, the GSMA Mobile World Congress attracts executives from the world’s most influential mobile operators, device makers, infrastructure providers, software companies, internet companies and organisations across a wide range of vertical industry sectors, as well as government delegations from across the globe. Mobile World Congress includes an industry-leading conference with C-level speakers from around the world; an exhibition showcasing innovative mobile technologies, products and services; a government and ministerial programme; partner events and programmes; free seminars and many other activities.

The event this year seems to revolve around 5G and other innovations related to do that, apart from artificial intelligence, industry 4.0, immersive content like augmented reality and virtual reality, disruptive innovation, digital wellness and trust, and the future roadmap which is a 10-year view on the technologies that will shape our world in 2028 and beyond.

However, in what could be termed as welcome news for India, a GSMA report released today says that India will be the second largest smartphone superpower by 2025 after China. 5G is on track to account for 15 per cent of global mobile connections by 2025, as the number of 5G network launches and compatible devices ramps up this year, according to a new GSMA report. The 2019 global edition of the GSMA’s flagship Mobile Economy report series – published today at MWC Barcelona 2019 – reveals that a further 16 major markets worldwide will switch on commercial 5G networks this year, following on from the first 5G launches in South Korea and the US in 2018. It is calculated that mobile operators worldwide are currently investing around $160 billion per year (capex) on expanding and upgrading their networks, despite regulatory and competitive pressures.

The key highlights of the new report ‘The Mobile Economy 2019’ authored by GSMA Intelligence are as follows:

• The number of 5G connections will reach 1.4 billion by 2025 – 15 per cent of the global total. By this point, 5G is forecast to account for around 30 per cent of connections in markets such as China and Europe, and around half of the total in the US;
• 4G will continue to see strong growth over this period, accounting for almost 60 percent of global connections by 2025 – up from 43 per cent last year;
• The number of global IoT connections will triple to 25 billion by 2025, while global IoT revenue will quadruple to $1.1 trillion;
• One billion new unique mobile subscribers2have been added in the four years since 2013, bringing the total to 5.1 billion by the end of 2018, representing about two thirds of the global population;
• More than 700 million new subscribers are forecast to be added over the next seven years, about a quarter of these coming from India alone;
• An additional 1.4 billion people will start using the mobile internet over the next seven years, bringing the total number of mobile internet subscribers globally to 5 billion by 2025 (more than 60 per cent of the population).

What the Report says About the Indian Mobility Scenario:

• The report says that three new smartphone super-powers will emerge by 2025, and India will be the second largest with roughly 1,171 million smartphone users after China followed by Indonesia, USA, Brazil, Russia, Japan, Pakistan, Nigeria and Bangladesh.
• Global mobile data usage will grow five-fold by 2024, spurred by increased smartphone adoption and availability of affordable high-speed networks, and China and India will be driving most of the increase.
• Asia-Pacific and MENA are the most improved regions, due to significant improvements in scores for infrastructure and content and services, and India figures in one of the most improved countries from 2014 to 2017.
• Mobile subscribers will approach 6 billion by 2025, of which some 700 million will be new subscribers; half of them will be from Asia Pacific and seven countries will account for half of new subscribers. India will lead that list with 24% new additions, followed by China, Pakistan, Nigeria, Indonesia, USA and Brazil.

To read more on the latest GSMA report, click here. The GSMA represents the interests of mobile operators worldwide, uniting more than 750 operators with over 350 companies in the broader mobile ecosystem, including handset and device makers, software companies, equipment providers and internet companies, as well as organisations in adjacent industry sectors.

GSMA has also honored Bharti Enterprises Founder and Chairman Sunil Bharti Mittal for his contributions to the global mobile industry and for successfully leading its board as Chairman for two years.