The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has released the Internet data usage report to be held in the country by September this year. According to this report, India has consumed around 55 million terabytes of data this year. In 2018, this figure was 46 million terabytes, while in 2017, this figure was 20 million terabytes.
The sudden change in the rate of internet data consumption in India started in the year 2017 because, in 2016, India consumed only 4 million terabytes of data.
Why did India’s Internet data consumption rate suddenly change?
First of all, let’s talk about the telecom companies, Reliance Jio came to India on 27 December 2015, but at that time Jio’s services were available only for the company’s employees. In September 2016, Jio publicly rolled out its services. Many of you will know how cheap plans Jio had launched in the market at that time. So after the arrival of Jio in the year 2016, almost all telecom companies in India dropped their tariff rate. As a result, more and more people started using the internet.
In 2016, American video streaming company Netflix also entered India, while in April 2017, it started distributing content. After the arrival of Netflix, video content in local language started being created more on different online platforms in the country. Therefore, OTT applications have also contributed to the growth of Internet data usage in India.
Digital India has also contributed to the growth of Internet data usage in India.
As per TRAI’s September 2019 report, the number of wireless data subscribers in the country is around 664.80 million. In the year 2014, the number was just 281.58 million.