Mobile Internet a Super Hit in Rural India

An astonishing fact has been revealed by a latest survey conducted in India. Rural India is addicted to Mobile internet and to a very great extent. In fact rural population is so hooked to the mobile internet that it has surpassed the number of mobile internet users in the urban cities. Rural mobile internet has also over taken the active number of mobile internet users in the urban india.

Of a total of 407 million-plus mobile phone users in the country, there are over 218 million rural mobile subscribers compared with 188 million urban subscribers, while the connections are pegged at 269 million for rural India, against 218 million for urban India.

The survey was conducted with over a sample crowd of 2 lac and participants across all 23 telecom operators. The survey was conducted between the months of April and Mid June. The survey also said that the growth in the mobile usage has increased by 34 % . With 103 million mobile users being added in the last one year, while active mobile subscriptions grew by 37% to reach 487 million. However, amidst the overall growth of mobile telephony in the country, rural India has scripted its own impressive story.

Similarly, while household level penetration jumped from 48% to 71% for rural India, urban India had 89%, just 1% up from the 2010 figure. The lower income class (monthly household income below R6,250) is now the single largest mass of mobile users in India with 40% users, again hinting at the growing dominance of the rural market.

Only 8.58 million GSM users were added in June, which is the lowest in 31 months, as per the latest data released by Cellular Operators’ Association of India. In the handset space, the survey reveals that 82% of all mobile handsets are claimed to have been bought at below the price point of R3,000, with rural areas having an average buying price of just R2,078, again indicative of the low-cost handset market swelling in the country fuelled by rising demand in rural India. India now has 446 million active mobile handsets, 26% more than the number in 2010. The dual-sim handset rage has translated into 5% of all handsets in the country being ‘dual SIM’, at 22 million.

The survey further states that multiple-SIM users grew by 20 million in the last one year to touch 65 million, an increase of 44%. It also points at flattening of use and drop in mobile spends with average monthly spends on ‘most-used connection’ down by 11% to R215, as compared to R242 last year, with as many as 77% connections yielding R0-200 in monthly spends. The daily average talk time is up, but only marginally, from 23.5 minutes in 2010 to 24.7 minutes this year.