4G not to knock off 2G, 3G soon: Nokia MBiT

Although the Indian telecom market witnessed a paradigm shift in data consumption with 4G traffic capturing 82% share of data traffic in December 2017, the technology would not be able to wipe out 3G and 2G technologies anytime soon.

Unlike, earlier predictions that 4G would put 2G and 3G into the graveyard, Nokia believes that it would still take time for complete wipe out of 2G and 3G technologies. "2G is placed in such a band that helps in good voice quality, besides as far as 3G is concerned, still majority of people uses 3G data for video streaming and the typical graduation happens from 2G to 3G, 4G has gained momentum only because of Reliance Jio," said Amit Marwah, Head, Customer Marketing and Communication, Nokia India.

Nokia today released India Mobile Broadband Index 2018, where it said that 3G and 4G continued to drive growth in total data traffic carried over mobile networks in India, contributing to 99% of total traffic in December 2017. In most of the categories, 3G traffic has surpassed the 4G traffic. In category A, 4G traffic grew by 142%, while 3G traffic rose by 256% and 2G traffic declined in 2017 by 21%. Similar patterns were shown for all the categories.

"Falling data prices, bundled data plans, better coverage footprint, offload of 4G on to 3G and better device availability have contributed to growth in 3G payload," the report said.

It also however said that over 90% of smartphones shipped in 2017 support 4G, highlighting a waning demand for 3G.