Half Of Country’s Mobile Customers Use Internet, Data Service On Phones

[Karthik R 246]

NEW DELHI: Nearly half of India’s mobile customers use some form of internet and web related data services on their handsets, offering a huge base for telecom companies to tap as they all launch third generation services in the country.

The numbers indicate the data potential that India holds: Customers who access some form of internet service on their handsets has risen 70% over the last 12 months to touch 214 million as of June 10, says telecoms regulator Trai. Analysts say this figure has risen to over 240 million as of September 10. This is more than ten times the number of internet connections on a PC in the country.

Unlike the West, Europe and other markets such as Japan and Korea, the first experience of the internet as well as email for vast majority of the country’s population is on a cellphone and not on a PC. India has over 650 million cellular connections, but the number of actual customers is estimated to be only about 450 million since many own double of even triple SIMS. A mere 6% of the 1.1 billion Indian have access to internet via computers, but the country enjoys a mobile telephony penetration of over 65%.

According to Trai, Bharti has the highest number of data customers at close to 71 million as of June 10, followed by Vodafone Essar at 36 million.

“ 3G will enable us to bring fantastic services to this country and the data opportunity in this market is great. Data will be segmented and the plans will be tailor-made for different segments of the population. Data will bring consolidation to the business, because it is nonsense to have 13-14 players with only some offering data services,” Vittorio Colao, chief executive officer Vodafone Group Plc . told ET in a recent interaction.

A leading executive with a top telecoms company said that most of the 240 million data subscribers in India were only using free or promotional data and internet related services. “The challenge for operators is to ensure that these customer numbers can be translated to revenues. Currently, only about 10% of the any operator’s revenues is from data, and off this text messages, or SMSs accounts for 50%,” this executive added.

“The way GSM services led to mobile phones being the first telephone at home in India, 3G products and services will lead the democratization of information. Proliferation of 3G services will see Mobile Internet far outpacing conventional forms of internet access,” Tata Teleservices’ executive president, mobility Deepak Gulati said.

Mr Gulati also added that the company had the first-mover advantage in the 3G space from the private sector perspective, and combined with the partner in Japan’s NTT DOCOMO , it was poised to take up a leadership position in the Internet access space, both on mobile phones and other larger-screen devices.

New York based Allied Business Intelligence, Inc, in its latest report has predicted that rapid offtake of mobile data usage in India following the launch of 3G services here would result in the Asia-Pacific region consuming 2,400 petabytes of mobile data annually by 2015, accounting for 23% of global data traffic, only second to North America with an expected consumption of 3,100 petabytes.

Source : here

[vvinayakpai 26]

If Reliance CDMA does away with their logic defying NUC charges, I am sure they can do the turnaround much required

[tanveer 59]

I dont agree with this data. I am sure not even 10% of female users would be usning data. Similarly very few in the rural areas would be using data either.

[Karthik R 246]

they said ''some form of internet and web related data services on their handsets'' right, so it may include ringtones/wallpapers etc that we download from the operator's portal

[KAPILKDEV 68]

I found in a report that about 80% of mobile handsets used in India are base models, ie not supporting data. This news is intended to attract people to 3G.

[kshah 452]

True, these days reports contrary to the ne before auction of 3G are around. They appear to be fabricated. Just 7% internet penetration and 50% users uses net on mobile? LOL

[kkdeep 6]

This report appears incorrect. If it is true why don't we see so many people using data. i hardly know anybody around me who uses data. In fact most of the people use basic handsets and using email on those handsets is a pain.

[situ1962 21]

That report is clearly a false one.Very few people use data enabled handsets and even fewer use data on them.I have seen people using fancy phones only for the sake of style or status symbol.The number of data users on phones is really very less than what the report has claimed to be.

Yes,Reliance can boost it's revenue if they come out with competitive data plans which can attract the young generation,as they use internet on the go the most.

[KanagaDeepan 1,084]

Half Of Country’s Mobile Customers Use Internet, Data Service On Phones

Hmmm... If they say half of the number of SIMs activated in our country are FAKE, then we can atleast believe that small lie... But saying "Half Of Country’s Mobile Customers Use Internet, Data Service On Phones" is nothing but a joke.. May be they have included SMS, as part of data services..

Edited November 12, 2010 by KanagaDeepan

[chintan1 6]

^^^^^

May be they have included SMS, as part of data services.. .. :lol2:

This is funniest part good one sir ...but on serious note ...even i have noticed not all people are using data on there phone ..

Might b this report is some fabricated/tempered one .... has part of 3g publicity ...

[webmaster1105 0]

I guess its about urban customers... Because there is no question of this stat being true in terms of Rural crowd

[Karthik R 246]

Okay this interesting piece of article appeared in Economic Times as you can see from the source. Hmm arent they supposed to be an authentic, authoritative and reliable one?? Now even I am not buying it! Maybe they have some interests in telecom sector.