Back in 2016 before the disruption by Reliance Jio, nobody anticipated that data would become the oxygen for the Indians. The super-affordable 4G plans ushered a new wave of Internet era that allowed massive consumption of the high-speed data.

A stat released on website Investindia.gov reveals that average Indians are spending more and more time on their smartphones than ever. Currently, they are spending close to 5 hours on smartphones daily. As per TRAI data, the average consumption of data has risen to 17.36 Gb in 2023 from 66.13 mb back in 2014.

Arrival of Digital subscriptions, OTT platforms and Youtube Content creators have played a major part in engaging Indians on their smartphones as they take away almost 4 hours of viewing on a daily basis.

Will 5G increase more screen time?

Jio and Airtel are doing exactly what Jio did in 2016 i.e. free data consumption for the time being. 5G Base stations are being erected at an impressive rate in India. While both Jio and Airtel are not monetizing the 5G data yet, things are likely to change soon. This begs the curiosity whether 5G will increase the screen time for the average Indian which was close to 3 hours in 2014 when 4G had not arrived. As per another source, the average Indian is spending close to seven and half hours total on screen time.

The Fixed Wireless Access Broadband is usually deployed on the 4G and 5G radio waves and will eventually move on to the 6G band. Therefore, broadband consumption will increase too in the massive deployment of 5G which will eventually lead to more screen time.