Indian telecommunications companies will have to continue investing substantially in expanding and keeping up data service quality in the coming quarters as the number of mobile devices explodes.

Operators looking to deploy effective broadband services and tap future growth opportunities need to significantly invest in scaling network performance in three areas-ensuring the network is available everywhere, ensuring app coverage is consistent across geographies, and that there are new models of billing based on personalization that address consumer's specific preferences, an Ericsson India official said.

"A few years ago access needs were limited to 'some-time', today it is 'real-time', and it is moving towards being connected 'all the time' with access to high quality content," Ajay Gupta, head of strategy and marketing, Ericsson India, said.

Speaking on the sidelines of an event to share Ericsson's findings on India's mobile telephony, Gupta said telcos will have to ensure they keep investing in infrastructure in order to keep up with the demand from customers.

Smartphone penetration will grow from 10 per cent or 90 million devices in 2013 to 45 per cent or 520 million devices by 2020, according to Ericsson. Broadband use is lagging smartphone use. Only 40 million subscribers were on wireless broadband at the end of December 2013, according to The Indian Telecom Services Performance Indicators, October - December, 2013, a report published by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India. The number of wireless internet subscribers stood at around 22.04 crore at the end of December 2013.

Ericsson is the world's largest vendor of wireless network equipment and at 18000, employs more people in India than anywhere else. India had 88.63 crore subscribers to wireless connections in December 2013, which grew by 1.7% over the quarter ended September 2013.

Growth in smartphones would sharpen the need for mobile broadband, particularly in areas with low coverage such as in villages and far flung areas of the country. Different applications being used by consumers will require more and more from the networks. A third of all mobile broadband data traffic today is driven by social media, browsing and chat, and there will be more and more need for content such as video.