Internet and Mobile Association of India yesterday released interesting statistics on Mobile Internet usage in India. According to their I-Cube Mobile internet survey conducted in 35 cities, out of about 900 odd mobile users in India 78.7 million users accessed internet through their mobile devices, which includes tablets, mobile phones and laptops with USB dongles.
Indian Mobile Internet usage Statistics
According to the IAMAI report, out of 78.7 million mobile internet users, 15 million users only accessed sites owned by mobile operators. Also, 2.7 million users used mobile internet connection using USB dongles.
So, in reality, in strictest sense, about 61 million users could be termed as the the real mobile internet users in India.
Mobile Internet Usage Highlights
- The average mobile phone cost that accessed internet was Rs. 8250. This clearly shows that high-end mobile phones aka smartphones are mostly used to access internet. In India, even today 90% of the mobile phones sold are below Rs. 5000.
- The average mobile phone bill of a user who accessed internet on their mobiles was Rs. 460. What is interesting though is that close to Rs. 200 of that bill was attributed to the internet expenses. This also points to the fact that internet on mobile is still quite expensive in India and hence the usage is relatively lower.
- While the internet usage was primarily to send and receive emails and social networking activities, many use their phones to watch online videos and download apps, which is an encouraging sign for mobile content developers.
- According to the report, it is expected that by the end of December 2012, there will be around 87 million mobile internet users in India. This number is expected to double to nearly 164 million by end of March 2015.
The report clearly shows that internet access on mobile is on the rise, but still in percentage terms, it is one of the lowest. This fact was also attested by Mary Meeker’s landmark Internet Trends report, which showed that only 4 percent Indians have Smartphones, yet we rank 5th in the world when it comes to number of smartphones used.