India’s mobile market is growing at a tremendous rate and nobody can doubt that. It’s not just the number of subscribers that is rising but the way that subscribers are using their mobiles is changing too. It’s no wonder that all major companies that have anything to do with mobile are looking at great growth opportunities in India.
India’s huge population also guarantees a large market for Internet based companies as the number of people that access the Internet from India keeps rising. A report published by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India ( TRAI) gives us a detailed view of the telephony market in India. Here’s some intriguing stats that the report reveals:
Wireless subscriptions data:
- Share of Rural areas in total subscription has increased to 33.35% at the end of Mar-11 from 33.00% at the end of Dec-10. The year-on-year (Y-O-Y) growth of the market share of the Rural areas for Mar-11 is 3.24 as against 6.28% in the previous quarter.
- The dominance of wireless services continues to grow steadily.
- Rural subscription grew at the rate of 9.03% in QE Mar-11 as against 10.49% in QE Dec-10 and Urban subscription grew at the rate of 7.33% as against 8.83% in the previous quarter.
Internet services:
- Share of Broadband subscription in total Internet subscription increased from 58.8% in Dec-10 to 60.4% in Mar-11.
- Number of Narrowband subscribers increased from 7.70 million in Dec-10 to 7.79 million in Mar-11, thereby showing a growth rate of 1.17% as against a growth rate of 1.42% in the previous quarter.
- The total Internet leased line customers stood at 45,275 at the end of Mar-11 as compared to 36,244 at the end of Dec-10, registering an increase of about 25%.
- DSL (Digital Subscriber Line) is the most preferred technology used by the Service Providers to provide Broadband Services and it constitutes 86.09% of total broadband subscribers. Cable Modem Technology follows with 5.97% connections.
- Maharashtra has the largest Internet (<256 Kbps) and Broadband (>=256 Kbps) subscriber base in the country. Tamil Nadu is at second place in internet and broadband subscriber base.
- In all the Top 10 states, the number of broadband subscribers is more than the number of Internet subscribers. These are encouraging statistics for businesses that rely on fast internet access.
- 46.99% of total wireless subscribers base are capable of Accessing Data Services/Internet at the end of Mar-11 as against 44.19% at the end of previous quarter.
- More importantly, compared to same time last year, the number of wireless subscribers capable of accessing Data/Internet services has seen a growth of more than 114%.
You can view the report here
