After Government allowed network sharing, spectrum sharing and affordable devices would drive use of data dominant telecom systems like 4G and Long Term Evolution (LTE) soon.

According to Adrian Scarse, Head of Mobile Competence Centre, 3GPP & CTO, ETSI, telecom technology has moved beyond fourth-generation and fifth-generation networks would be a reality by next year. Significant research and development work is already going on in 5G.

Smartphone usage is catching up very fast, particularly amongst the young Indian population. 
Shyam P. Mardikar, Chief – Strategy, Architecture & Engineering, Bharti Airtel Ltd, quoted, “Data claims that India has the second-largest smartphone subscriber rate across the world. The growth rate was 60 per cent in Taiwan and 52 per cent in India by 2013, though the subscriber base was only 67 million which amounted to just 6 per cent of the total mobile phone subscriber base of over 950 million.”

Currently, there are 279 commercial networks in 101 countries where 536 operators are investing across 157 counties. Smartphone users in urban India crossed 51 million in 2013, a 89-per cent growth and expected to cross 104 million by the end of 2014.