India Has 81 Million Internet Users ! A Statistical Enigma !

[Honest 836]

India Has 81 Million Internet Users!

When it comes to sheer numbers, India, with as many as 81 million people accessing the Internet, is just behind Japan (88.1 million), China (210 million) and the USA (220 million). Brazil is at the fifth place with 53.1 million users.

A report released by The Internet Governance Forum, on the eve of its four-day global conference scheduled to be held in Hyderabad, has listed India as the country with the fourth largest number of Internet users in the world.

While the numbers may seem encouraging, there is a definite disparity between the IGF data and the TRAI data. The latter in a recent report put the total number of dial-up connections in India at a measly 11.6 million. To arrive at a figure of 81 million it would be necessary to share this one connection with as many as six people.

If that was not all, another figure released by the Internet And Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) and IMRB International had put the number of Internet users in India at 32 million - and this was just last year.

That was about the dial-up part. When it comes to the number of users accessing the Internet using a broadband connection, India lies at the bottom of the pile with only 5.05 million users on broadband. Compare these numbers with the US (73.2 million), and China (66.4 million) and it is certain that the country sure has a long way to go before we can break into the Top 10 list here.

Courtesy : Techtree

[Honest 836]

Providing affordable broadband to rural areas next priority

Press Trust of India l 5 Dec l Kochi

Providing affordable broadband, especially to the suburban and rural communities is the next focus area, Telecom Secretary, Siddhartha Behura.

The increased rural telecom connectivity is poised to give a new burst of growth for the community. On a larger plane, however, there will be multiplier effects for the rural economy, Behura said at a conference on '3G: The Next Wave'.

Provision of broadband in rural and remote areas will also help in bridging the so called 'digital divide', he said.

It will help improve productivity in rural areas, help overcome the constraints of an inadequate transport infrastructure and overall improve the quality of life.

It is expected that 3G will play a critical role in fulfilling these requirements of rural India and will also act as cost effective medium to reach them,he said.

As telecom connectivity and broadband connectivity becomes a reality, the rural localities will become more integrated with the rapid growth processes taking place in the rest of the economy, he said.

There will be increased socio economic opportunities for rural citizens, which will enable greater employment prospects and purchasing power. The spin off benefits will be felt, not just in telecom, but right across the entire economy, he said.

''What we do need to keep in mind is that the rural subscribers need more than plain vanilla voice sercies. Their requirement is much more, sometimes more than the urban subscribers. Services like health care, education, and e-governance which the urban subsribers take for granted are of greater importance to them than to their urban counterparts.These can be delivered to them through broadband kind of services.

[Honest 836]

Number of Net users on the rise

Business Line l 28 Dec l Coimbatore

Broadband penetration continues to be low.

“The number of users of the Internet service is only around 35-38 per thousand compared to the global penetration of 68-plus per thousand.”

While Asia tops in Internet usage, North America has taken the lead in Internet penetration.

However, in India, less than 50 per cent of the people use the Internet, although the number is said to be growing by the minute. It is said to have increased 30 per cent compared to 2007.

The broadband penetration has continued to remain low at 5 million against the country’s population of over 1.2 billion.

Studies show that 91 per cent of the people in India use the Net primarily for e-mailing, while over 80 per cent use it as a social media platform. Job search, information search and instant messaging and chat account for 72, 49 and 70 per cent respectively.

While the dependence on the Net is rising leaps and bounds, cyber laws are not in place and cyber security awareness among users is pathetic, say experts.

Sharing her thoughts on Net penetration and its status in India, Ms Srishti Sofat, Country Manager, InfoSpace, said the company witnessed a 23 per cent increase in Internet users as at the end of October and 26 per cent increase in domain registrations during the first quarter of 2008 compared with the corresponding quarter of the earlier year.

“The Net is used as a tool for discovery, research, communication and efficiency,” she said.

Cyber café users

Mr Diptarup Chakraborti, Principal Research Analyst, Gartner, said while Net penetration continued to rise in the country, the number of users accessing the Net from cyber cafes (in urban areas) tended to slip in the last couple of months. He attributed this to increased PC penetration in urban areas, users sensing Net access at cyber café to be uneconomical and insistence of identity proof at browsing centres.

“The number of users of the Internet service is only around 35-38 per thousand compared to the global penetration of 68-plus per thousand. This is due to bad user experience, high level of piracy with instances of even the operating system being pirated and security concerns,” Mr Chakraborti reasoned.

Notwithstanding such concerns, the penetration of the Net has progressed from an experiment to utility and is expected to eventually entwine in the fabric of society.

Usage

The Net is used extensively to do job search, ticketing – both travel and entertainment, online trading, banking, information search and online gaming, apart from chats and e-mails.

An IAMAI’s Report on Online Banking has estimated the online banking service users at 16 million by 2008.

Though the figures are not out yet, there has been a significant rise in Internet banking over the past three years with banks offering some form of service, be it checking balance online, bill payments or simple cash transfers. Internet banking has been fuelled by broadband availability.

“Speed continues to be lower than developed economies. A new level of bandwidth augmentation is required to ensure quality experience with services such as Video on Demand. We also need a strong framework for issuance of net connections such as the process followed for cell phone,” Mr Vardhman Jain, Managing Director (Insurance and Business Process Solutions) of Perot Systems, said.

[santhoshavanoor 7]

Providing affordable broadband to rural areas next priority

Press Trust of India l 5 Dec l Kochi

Providing affordable broadband, especially to the suburban and rural communities is the next focus area, Telecom Secretary, Siddhartha Behura.

The increased rural telecom connectivity is poised to give a new burst of growth for the community. On a larger plane, however, there will be multiplier effects for the rural economy, Behura said at a conference on '3G: The Next Wave'.

Provision of broadband in rural and remote areas will also help in bridging the so called 'digital divide', he said.

It will help improve productivity in rural areas, help overcome the constraints of an inadequate transport infrastructure and overall improve the quality of life.

It is expected that 3G will play a critical role in fulfilling these requirements of rural India and will also act as cost effective medium to reach them,he said.

As telecom connectivity and broadband connectivity becomes a reality, the rural localities will become more integrated with the rapid growth processes taking place in the rest of the economy, he said.

There will be increased socio economic opportunities for rural citizens, which will enable greater employment prospects and purchasing power. The spin off benefits will be felt, not just in telecom, but right across the entire economy, he said.

''What we do need to keep in mind is that the rural subscribers need more than plain vanilla voice sercies. Their requirement is much more, sometimes more than the urban subscribers. Services like health care, education, and e-governance which the urban subsribers take for granted are of greater importance to them than to their urban counterparts.These can be delivered to them through broadband kind of services.

Mr. Behura, 3G is now outdated, also 3.5G. You should speak about 4G as the Next wave...

[commonman 228]

Mr. Behura, 3G is now outdated, also 3.5G. You should speak about 4G as the Next wave...

The waves take a long time to cross the Atlantic and reach India

[Honest 836]

The waves take a long time to cross the Atlantic and reach India

[Harshal 11]

My opinion is its not even the Atlantic.

The place where such technology is born and of course several years ahead of even US, is Japan. Instead of trying to catch up with the West may be we should look a bit east wards. Then may be we will be closer to what West has mass deployed currently.