India will have 1 billion unique mobile subscribers by 2020: GSMA report

India is expected to have nearly 1 billion unique mobile subscribers by 2020 and has emerged as world's second biggest smartphone market, a GSMA study revealed on Wednesday.

In the process, the country has overtaken the US and trails only China.

Low priced smartphones and huge availability of 3G and 4G networks has helped more and more people to utilize mobile services. Global telecom body GSMA has claimed that total mobile users in India stood at 616 million at the end of June, GSMA said.

Alasdair Grant, the head of Asia for GSMA, told a leading journal that smartphone connections will continue to grow in coming years with rapid expansion of 3G and 4G networks across the land. The entry of operators like Reliance Jio will also fuel growth.

GSMA further added that mobile operators have read market trends and are investing heavily to improve network coverage.

The number of 4G connections is forecast to grow rapidly, growing from just three million at the end of 2015 to 280 million by 2020.

This is a great sign for Indian mobile users as 3G can be available to 90% of the population by 2020 whereas 4G can be available to 70% people.