CIOInsider India Magazine
Data Usage to Increase 20 Times by 2030
According to Credit Suisse, the shift of the digital ecosystem to the metaverse, where a person feels immersed in a virtual world, would increase data usage by 20 times globally by 2032, and telecom carriers Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio are well positioned to gain from the boom in India.
According to the report, the metaverse has huge potential to increase screen time and bandwidth use.
As these are the technologies essential for accessing the metaverse, augmented reality and virtual reality technologies are projected to grow.
“Internet traffic is already 80 per cent video and has been growing at a 30 per cent CAGR (compound annual growth rate). Our team projects that even modest metaverse usage could drive a further 37 per cent CAGR in the next decade to 20x current data usage”, states the report.
We expect the penetration to increase further to 12.6 per cent by FY25E driven by continued demand for data and telcos' push to improve utilization rate of their fibre infrastructure
It stated that one of the segments where early use cases of metaverse are predicted is gaming.
According to the report, gaming in India is still in its early stages, and mobile gaming is being driven by smartphones due to the availability of low-cost handsets and 4G broadband services.
“Mobile internet remains the key medium for Indian users to go online, given relatively low fixed broadband penetration. The share of mobile gaming in online games is expected to increase in future”.
India is one of the world's leading countries in terms of daily mobile phone usage, but it has low fixed broadband penetration compared to global peers, which will be critical in realising the metaverse's full potential.
Fixed broadband penetration in India is expected to rise to nine percent in the current fiscal year from 6.8 percent in FY20.
“While it is too early to determine the impact of metaverse on Indian telcos' revenues, we believe Bharti Airtel (with 17 percent of revenues from fixed line) and Jio are well placed to benefit from the surge in data usage driven by metaverse in the latter half of this decade”.
“We expect the penetration to increase further to 12.6 per cent by FY25E driven by continued demand for data and telcos' push to improve utilization rate of their fibre infrastructure”.
