August 29 2014: A joint Google-A.T. Kearney study has highlighted the opportunities and the challenges of India's  galloping growth in mobile Internet which is slated to double to  480 million  in two years.  The study  pinpoints the best opportunities for Indian telcos to pursue to capitalize on this explosion in the mobile Internet user base. The results show the industry can generate additional cumulative revenues of $8 billion over the next three years.

We bring you highlights of the study entitled 'Finding The Next Billion Dollar Opportunities'. We also append a link  where you can find the full  18 page report in PDF
India's online revolution is on the edge of an exciting phase. At the turn of the century, the country had only 5 million Internet users, largely on dial-up connections delivered through fixed-line networks. In 2009, Internet use took off as mobile penetration grew and telcos began to invest in data networks. By 2013, mobile Internet usage had overtaken fixed line, and mobile devices had become the sole access device for many people. Today, 230 million Indians are online, with 155 million of them using mobile devices.
This is just the tip of the iceberg. In the next three years, the country will see another mobile explosion as the online community more than doubles to 480 million. By 2017, 385 million people will have smartphones, six times more than today, and the number of online transactors will explode to 160 million—eight times as many as today.  Data consumption will triple, and consumers will be buying five times as much content. This transformation will happen at an unprecedented pace. For Indian telcos, a world of value-creating opportunities is about to emerge.
The country's telecom industry grew by 13 percent CAGR between fiscal year (FY) 2012 and FY14 and has reached total revenues of $25 billion, driven primarily by an increasing voice subscriber base. By FY17, the industry is expected to reach $35 billion in revenues. Voice share is expected to decline as a result of subscriber saturation in urban areas and ongoing pricing pressures. Non-voice, on the other hand, is expected to grow at 29 percent CAGR; within non-voice, data revenue will grow at around 70 percent per year and new digital VAS streams are expected to emerge and grow exponentially, whereas SMS and traditional VAS revenues will remain flat or decline.

Link to full report in PDF