Indian data cards market grew to 4 million in Q2 2017 – growing 16 percent quarter on quarter and 614 percent year on year.

LTE / 4G data card shipments account for 17 percent sequential growth owing to Mi-Fi devices. 3G data card shipments fell 61 percent in Q2 2017.

Reliance Jio data cards have achieved 91 percent growth thanks to the launch of free data services followed by the availability of Mi-Fi- data cards at different prices.

The other vendors’ market shares are stagnant by 3 percent from the last two quarters. The units shipped of Alcatel witnessed the fastest growth by 522 percent.

ZTE shipments declined 21 percent and D-Link shipments dropped 82 percent. Among Reliance Jio offered MiFi devices, M2S continued to be country’s fastest selling model. JMR1140 stood second while JioFi ranked third.

“Jio is gaining acceptance in Tier II and Tier III cities and towns that could erode potential broadband base for operators like BSNL.  Mi-Fi could also slow the pace of 3G to 4G Smartphone replacement as the market looks for replacement opportunity in smaller towns and cities,” said Shipra Sinha, analyst, Industry Intelligence Practice at CMR.

Reliance Jio’s MiFi devices (JioFi) also have impacted the home router market. The home router market declined 60 percent-70 percent in terms of sales in major cities. JioFi has started affecting the SOHO / SMB router market in other cities and towns as well.

Data card with data rate of 150 Mbps accounted for 97 percent of the total market. Around 92 percent of data cards were on Qualcomm chipsets.