Mobile data usage is increasing rapidly in India, and now its speed has reached a shocking level. According to Nokia’s MBiT 2026 report, average monthly data consumption per user is set to cross 31GB in 2025—up from about 27.5GB in 2024. This surge shows that internet usage habits within the country are changing rapidly, and people are spending more time online than ever before.
The report also highlights a huge surge in 5G data traffic across the country during 2025. On an annual basis, an increase of almost 70 percent was recorded, taking this figure to 12.9 Exabytes. As a result, 5G now accounts for approximately 47 percent of total mobile broadband traffic, underscoring its rapidly growing impact.
Over the past five years, average data consumption per user has seen an annual growth rate of 18 percent. The main reasons behind this trend are the expansion of better mobile broadband services and the increasing demand for advanced technologies. In the current scenario, services like AI-based applications, 4K video streaming and cloud gaming are gaining tremendous popularity among users, leading to a steady increase in data consumption.
The country’s total data traffic has also grown significantly, surpassing the 27 Exabytes-per-month milestone in 2025. Over the last five years, the sector has recorded an annual growth rate of 21.7 percent. This shows that India’s digital ecosystem is expanding rapidly.
India has also strengthened its position on the global stage. The country now ranks second globally in terms of total number of 5G users. Additionally, India has emerged as the second largest market globally in terms of both 5G data usage and number of Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) users. In particular, FWA has played an important role in increasing data consumption, and its contribution to total 5G data traffic has now exceeded 25 percent. In this region, the number of users is increasing at double the pace year after year. Mobile broadband in India is entering a new era, where the influence of 5G and AI technology is continuously increasing. Network infrastructure is also rapidly evolving to better support growing demand and new services.
5G expansion is most visible in metro cities, where it accounts for about 58 percent of total mobile data traffic. Meanwhile, significant changes are also taking place at the device level. By 2025, there were approximately 892 million active 4G devices in the country, of which over 383 million devices already came with 5G support.
The increasing availability of affordable 5G smartphones has also accelerated this change. Shipments of 5G phones priced under $100 have seen nearly tenfold growth year-over-year. This is the reason that more than 90 percent of the smartphones launched throughout the year came with 5G support.
