India Telecom Report: Internet and Broadband Services

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India released a comprehensive report yesterday on the growth of Indian telecommunication Industry for quarter ending March 2009.

We are publishing a 3 part series that will highlight the performance of Indian Telecom sector.

1. India Telecom Report: Broadband & Internet
2. India Telecom Report: Wireline Subscribers
3. India Telecom Report: Wireless Subscribers

This is the 1st part in the India Telecom report series. Internet & Broadband services have been unable to emulate the growth that is seen by Indian Mobile sector, but it is growing steadily nevertheless. The Indian government has heady plans when it comes to Broadband and Internet services growth.

To achieve is 500 million subscriber base in next 3 years seems to be near impossible target !

Lets look at the where Indian Internet & Broadband services stand for the quarter ending March 2009:

Indian Internet & broadband services snapshot

According to TRAIs report, India currently has only 13.54 million Internet subscribers, which includes broadband. This is a ridiculously low number !

Even the growth rate is lowly 5.3% – We seriously have problems when it comes to Internet penetration !

While the wireless data Internet subscribers show close to 118 million subscribers, majority of them are GPRS connection on mobiles, which according to me should not be counted as Internet subscribers.

Indian Internet Subscriber Growth

• There were 13.54 million Internet subscribers at the end of March 2009 as compared to 12.85 million Internet subscribers at the end of December 2008 registering a growth of 5.30%.
• This growth rate is higher as compared to the growth rate of 5.01% at the end of December 2008.
• Besides above, there were 117.82 million wireless data subscribers at the end of March 2009 (capable of accessing data services including internet through mobile handsets (GSM/ CDMA)).
• Broadband Subscriber Growth - The number of Broadband subscribers (with a download speed of 256 Kbps or more) was 6.22 million at the end of March 2009 as compared to 5.52 million at the end of December 2008. The growth rate of broadband subscribers in this quarter is 12.68%.

Technology Used to Access Internet

• Broadband Subscribers Share (Technology wise) – Out of total 6.22 million broadband subscribers,
  • 5.364 million are DSL based;
  • 0.474 million Cable Modem;
  • 0.244 million Ethernet LAN;
  • 0.042 million Fiber;
  • 0.072 million Wireless,
  • 0.020 million Leased Line
  • 0.002 million use other technologies

Internet Subscriber Growth QoQ

Although, Indian broadband connections have doubled in last one year, the growth rate is still not enough. With a country population of close to 1.2 billion, 6.22 million broadband connections is just ridiculous !

That concludes the 1st part in the series of our India Telecom Report.

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Author: Arun Prabhudesai

Arun Prabhudesai is founder / chief editor at trak.in. He jumped the Entrepreneurship bandwagon in early 2008 after a long 13 year stint in I.T Industry. You can follow him on twitter @trakin or get in touch with him at admin-at-trak-dot-in or 91.9822575676.

Related posts:

1. India Telecom Report: Wireless Subscribers
2. India adds another 20 million Telecom Subscribers in Jan
3. India Telecom Report: Wireline Subscribers
4. Telecom Tuesday: India crossed 500 million telephone subscriber Mark
5. Its Official – India Crosses 500 Million Telecom Subscriber Mark in September
6. Indian Telecom and Broadband numbers are picking up steam
7. India overtakes U.S to become 2nd Largest Wireless Network in the world
8. Another bumper month for Telecom companies…9.22 million subscribers added !
9. Telecom Tuesday: Indian Telephone Subscriber Base reaches 525 Million !
10. WIMAX: Wireless Broadband Access throughout India by 2010!

Tagged as: broadband-in-India, India Boradband Services, India Telecom growth, India Telecommunication, Indian Internet Services, Internet growth in India, Internet in India, internet-penetration