Indian mobile Net users, now 87 million strong, spend Rs 198 a month

03rd January 2013
Indian mobile Net users, now 87 million strong, spend Rs 198 a month

New Delhi, January 03, 2013: India will have 130.6 million mobile internet users by March 2014 according to  a Mobile Internet Report by Internet and Mobile Association of India [IAMAI]  study conducted by the Indian Market Research Bureau (IMRB). 
In December 2012, this number was 87.1 Million mobile internet users.
According to the report, in October 2012, there were 78.7 million mobile users who had accessed internet in the last one month, which include Laptop with dongles, tablet, dongles that connects to Internet. Of this number, there are 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) and the rest 2.7 million users accessed the internet using dongles (i.e. connected to Internet using 2G, 3G or high-speed data cards).
The report finds that an average monthly bill of a user who access Internet on mobile devices is Rs. 460. Of which, the user spends Rs. 198 towards Internet expenses. This is a very healthy trend as it shows willingness of the users to spend nearly 40 percent of the bill towards Internet access. The rest is spent on voice services.

Email, social networking services (SNS) and messengers have high usage among mobile internet user. Accessing online videos, games or reading online news are done approximately 2-6 times a week. While online games are accessed by nearly 50% of the Mobile Internet users, less than 30% of users read online news and watch online videos.

The Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) was established in 2004 by the leading online publishers,  and in the last eight years has come to effectively address the challenges facing the digital and online industry including mobile content and services, online publishing, mobile advertising, online advertising, ecommerce and mobile & digital payments among others. The association is still the only professional industry body representing the online and mobile VAS industry in India, with a membership of 130 plus Indian and MNC companies, and with offices in Delhi and Mumbai.  The full text of the IAMAI Mobile Internet report can be found here in PDF format till Jan 16 after which it becomes a priced document @ Rs 5618.