Accounting for almost 64 percent of the total population in India, a new Cisco Annual Report stated that by 2023, India will have about 907 million internet users. Also, more than the rate at which population is growing currently (1.0 percent GACR), connections and devices are growing at a much rapid pace – 7 percent GACR, thus increase in the number of connections and devices increasing per household and per capita. With the advancements in technology, we are also witnessing various forms of new devices coming in the market with more advanced features that are further creating more of an inter-linked eco-system. Moreover, the report also stated that M2M applications will significantly contribute to the growth in connections and devices, contributing almost 25 percent of the total connections and devices. These applications will include healthcare monitoring, video surveillance, smart meters, transportation, asset and package tracking, among others. There has been a great increase in the mobile bandwidth which has allowed users to evolve from audio calls and text messages to UHD video calling and various other next-gen applications leveraging AR & VR capabilities. Furthermore, mobile networking evolution has always been driven by the increasing demand from end-users and business across the globe across various segments including video streaming, downloads, e-commerce, social networking, business productivity, gaming, among others. And if we see the figures given in the report, nearly 46.2 billion mobile applications would be downloaded by 2023.     

Anand Bhaskar, Managing Director, Service Providers Sales, Cisco India and SAARC also stated, “As digital literacy, mobile penetration, and internet connectivity grow deeper into the hinterland, a massive shift will be created in internet usage and consumption patterns across the country. This rise in connectivity and changing consumption patterns will challenge service providers’ ability to service their customers in an optimal manner. Flatter and more secure networks leveraging cloud and edge computing, as well as automation to manage the ever-expanding network, is essential for them to keep pace in the digital world. Service providers and enterprises will continue on the journey towards software-defined everything and edge computing to lower their overall cost per bit and provide the best customer experience.”