(Source: Ericsson)

India's telecom market has not reached a plateau, with rising data consumption, emerging artificial intelligence (AI) applications and further 5G adoption expected to sustain network demand, according to Nitin Bansal, Managing Director, India and Head-Networks, South East Asia, Oceania and India, at Ericsson.

"We do not believe that growth has plateaued. Growth will continue as AI applications introduce new network requirements, including higher uplink speeds and lower latency for applications such as augmented and virtual reality and the management of critical infrastructure. Network expectations will continue to rise, and data consumption will grow further," Bansal said in an interview on the sidelines of the recently concluded India Mobile Congress (IMC).

"We are already seeing monthly data usage of around 36–37 GB per user [according to Ericsson's June 2026 Mobility Report], a level we would not have anticipated a few years ago. At the same time, 5G currently serves only about one-third of India's population, leaving significant room for expansion as new use cases emerge," he added. So, the next phase of growth in India will be driven not only by growing data consumption but also by AI applications requiring higher uplink speeds and lower latency.

Ericsson's South East Asia, Oceania and India market accounted for 12% of its business in 2025, down from 20% in 2023. It competes with Nokia and Samsung, among others, in the Indian market.

5G monetization

India has established one of the world's largest 5G markets since launching services in October 2022. The country had around 550 million 5G users by September 2026, with services available in 99.9% of its districts, according to figures presented by the government at IMC. India is targeting one billion 5G subscribers by 2030.

For India's telecom operators, the challenge is to translate expanding 5G adoption into revenue growth. Initial deployments focused on enhanced mobile broadband, followed by Fixed Wireless Access (FWA), which uses wireless networks to deliver broadband connectivity to homes and businesses.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) data show there were 13.45 million 5G FWA subscribers at the end of August 2026, highlighting the role of the technology in expanding broadband access.

Operators are also exploring using 5G to offer more differentiated services. Bharti Airtel, India's second-largest service provider, recently launched a 5G network-slicing-based service, which grants faster and more reliable 5G service to its postpaid customers.

Commenting on whether Indian telcos should have adopted a staggered approach in 5G deployment instead of setting up a network across the country in one of the fastest pan-India deployments, Bansal said, "5G is not about use case for Indian networks. India needed capacity and 5G brings the capacity in the most efficient way. So, rather than expanding on 4G, I believe India did the right thing by evolving to 5G. The true value of 5G comes with ubiquitous coverage. And so, with the nice coverage that we have and we also have a lot of 5G Standalone (5G-SA) deployment as well, it opens up other monetization possibilities."

Bansal believes that new use cases should emerge over the next few months. "I believe that we are moving in the right direction, and we should see some more monetization use cases coming our way in the coming months," Bansal said.

He also noted that although existing Indian networks can support AI applications, operators will need to optimise them according to the requirements of particular applications.