India expected to have 165 million mobile Internet users by March 2015

In the latest report by Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) & IMRB, India is expected to have around 165 million mobile Internet users by March 2015. With more users accessing World Wide Web through mobile devices and dongles, this number is up from 87.1 Million in December 2012.

The report said,

• No. of mobile Internet users who accessed Internet through dongles and tablet PCs, increased to 87.1 million by December 2012 from 78.7 million users in October 2012,
• This is expected to grow further to 92.9 million (by March 2013), 130.6 million (by March 2014) and 164.8 million by March 2015.
• Of the 78.7 million users in October 2012, 61 million Off-Deck users (accessing sites other than sites of the operator), 15 million On-Deck users (accessing only sites specified by the operator).
•  “The remaining 2.7 million users accessed the Internet using dongles (i.e. connected to Internet using 2G, 3G or high-speed data cards),”
• Nearly 50% mobile internet users access online games, with less than 30% reading and watching online content
•  Watching online videos, reading online and playing games is done close to 206 times a week.
• High consumption of mobile internet has mainly been due to social networking services, emails and messengers.

The report said an average monthly bill of a user who access Internet on mobile devices is Rs 460. Of this, about Rs 198 is spent towards Internet expenses.

“This is a very healthy trend as it shows willingness of the users to spend nearly 40 per cent of the bill towards Internet access. The rest is spent on voice services,” the report said.