India's mobile internet use increases nine-fold

Indians used nearly 1.3 billion gigabytes of data in March 2017


Afp June 02, 2017
Indians used nearly 1.3 billion gigabytes of data in March 2017. PHOTO: AFP

NEW DELHI: Mobile internet usage in India has increased nine-fold in a single year, after the launch of a new operator sparked a telecoms price war, according to a new report.

Indians used nearly 1.3 billion gigabytes of data in March 2017 compared with around 150 million in the same period last year, said the report, Internet Trends 2017, published this week by the US investment fund Kleiner Perkins.

India's richest man shakes up telecoms market

The explosion in data use comes after the country's richest man Mukesh Ambani, shook up the telecoms market with the launch of new operator Jio in September.

The 4G telecom operator launched with an offer of free service for the rest of the year, followed by vastly cheaper data plans and free voice calls for life.

That led to a dramatic fall in the average cost of mobile internet in India, which the study said was 1.9 dollars in March compared to 4.4 dollars three years earlier.

By March this year Jio had 108 million subscriber, and was charging just 17 cents per giga of data.

Indian authorities block social media in IOK after clashes

Despite regulatory and technical obstacles, India's mobile internet market has huge growth potential with hundreds of millions expected to get online over the next decade using smartphones.

The country counts one billion mobile phone users, but nearly three-quarters of its population lacks access to the internet. In 2016, only 350 million Indians were able to go online.

COMMENTS (1)

Parwaz khan | 6 years ago | Reply Thanks to reliance jio ..jio dil say❤️
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