How Internet in India Will Look in 2020: 12 Exciting Statistics!

Indian Internet traffic has been growing at the fastest pace globaly for 3 years running, thanks to huge influx of new internet users, primarily Smartphone users. And this growth will be continuing in near future as India still has a large population who have yet not had the taste of Internet.

Cisco’s Visual Networking Index too points to the fact that India’s Internet growth will see further acceleration in years to come. The report states that the IP traffic in India will grow 4-fold in 2020, with video being the main trigger and almost 69% of all networked devices will be mobile-connected in 2020.

In India, smartphones will account for 37% (702.1 million) of all networked devices in 2020, compared to 18% (239.4 million) in 2015.

It also states that the average mobile connection speed will grow 3-fold from 2015 to 2020, reaching 3 Mbps in 2020.

The report mentions that the demand for higher video resolutions‚ more bandwidth and processing speed will increase the use of internet to 6 fold in 2020 with a growth of 45%. Another growth area will be in machine-to-machine (M2M) communication‚ which is expected to grow 12-fold ‚ accounting to 63% in mobile data traffic.

At a global level, total public Wi-Fi hotspots (including home spots) will grow 7X from 2015 (64 million) to 2020 (432 million) and home spots will grow from 57 million (2015) to 423 million (2020). People will have 26.3 billion networked devices by 2020 and globally smartphones will account to 21% (5.6 billion) of all networked devices compared to 19% (3.0 billion) in 2015.

Interesting Indian Internet Traffic Highlights

1. Indian Internet traffic in 2020 will be equivalent to 249x the volume of the entire Indian Internet in 2005
2. IP traffic will grow 4-fold from 2015 to 2020, a compound annual growth of 33%
   • IP traffic will reach 5.6 Exabytes per month in 2020, up from 1.4 Exabytes per month in 2015
3. Internet traffic will grow 4.4 fold from 2015 to 2020, a compound annual growth of 34%
   • Busy hour Internet traffic will grow 7.2-fold from 2015 to 2020, a compound annual growth rate of 48%
   • Internet traffic will reach 4.1 Exabytes per month in 2020, up from 946 Petabytes per month in 2015
4. Mobile data traffic will grow 12-fold from 2015 to 2020, a compound annual growth of 63%
   • Mobile data traffic will reach 1. 7 Exabytes per month in 2020, up from 149 Petabytes per month in 2015
   • India’s Mobile contributed to 11% of total IP traffic in 2015, and will be 31% of total IP traffic in 2020
   • Mobile data traffic in 2020 will be equivalent to 77x the volume of the entire Indian Internet in 2005
   • India’s mobile was 15.7% of total Internet traffic in 2015, and will be 41.7% of total Internet traffic in 2020
5. Fixed-Wifi was 38% of total IP traffic in 2015, and will be 34% of total IP traffic in 2020
   • India’s Fixed Wifi was 52.6% of total Internet traffic in 2015, and will be 47% of total Internet traffic in 2020
6. IP video traffic will grow 5-fold from 2015 to 2020, a compound annual growth rate of 40%
   • IP video will be 81% of all IP traffic in 2020, up from 63% in 2015
   • Consumer IP video traffic will be 83% of consumer IP traffic in 2020, up from 68% in 2015
   • Business IP video traffic will be 66% of business IP traffic in 2020, up from 37% in 2015
   • HD will be 49.8% of IP Video traffic in 2020, up from 19.3% in 2015 (68.8% CAGR)
7. Internet video traffic will grow 6-fold from 2015 to 2020, a compound annual growth rate of 45%
   • Total Internet video traffic (business and consumer, combined) will be 75% of all Internet traffic in 2020, up from 51% in 2015
   • Consumer Internet video traffic will be 76% of consumer Internet traffic in 2020, up from 53% in 2015
   • Internet gaming traffic will grow 7-fold from 2015 to 2020, a compound annual growth rate of 49%
8. There will be 1.9 billion networked devices in 2020, up from 1.3 billion in 2015
   • PCs will account for 2% (43.8 million) of all networked devices in 2020, compared to 3% (44.5 million) in 2015, (-0.3% CAGR)
   • Tablets will account for 2% (44.0 million) of all networked devices in 2020, compared to 1% (12.1 million) in 2015, (29.4% CAGR)
   • Portable devices such as smartphones and tablets accounted for 17% of IP traffic in 2015, and will be 48% of IP traffic in 2020
   • 4K TVs will account for 18% (9.5 million) of all flat panel TVs in 2020, compared to 2.1% (246,025) in 2015, (107.6% CAGR)
   • 69% of all networked devices will be mobile-connected in 2020
9. The average fixed broadband speed will grow 2.5-fold from 2015 to 2020, from 5.1 Mbps to 12.9 Mbps
10. The average Wi-Fi speeds from mobile devices will grow 2.2-fold from 2015 to 2020, from 3.3 Mbps to 7 Mbps.
11. The average Internet user will generate 6.1 gigabytes per month in 2015, up 21% from 5.0 gigabytes per month in 2014.
12. There will be 572,934 households (2.0% of all Internet households) generating more than 500 gigabytes per month in 2020

So, while many Indians are struggling with their Internet connectivity and speeds right now, we can surely look forward to better Internet days in years to come!