India to have 164.8 million mobile internet users by 2015

India will have 164.8 million mobile Internet users by March 2015, an increase of 77.7 million users from 87.1 million in December 2012.

The numbers are expected to be 92.9 million at end-March 2013 and 130.6 million at end-March 2014, according to the Mobile Internet Report by Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) and Indian Market Research Bureau (IMRB).

In October 2012, 78.7 million mobile users accessed the Internet in the last one month, the report said.

“Of this number, there were 61 million Off-Deck Users (accessing sites otherthan sites of the operator), 15 million On-Deck Users (accessing only sites specified by the operator) and the remaining 2.7 million users accessed the Internet using dongles such as connecting to the Internet using 2G, 3G or

high-speed data cards,” it said in a statement.

It said 58 per cent of mobile users spend between Rs101 (RM5.63) to Rs500 (RM27.90), while only seven per cent pay more than Rs1000 (RM55.80).

The report further found that an average monthly bill of a user who accesses the Internet on mobile devices is Rs460 (RM25.66), of which Rs198 (RM11.04) is for Internet expenses.

The users spend nearly 40 per cent of the bill on Internet access, while the rest is spent on voice services, it said.

Email, social networking services (SNS) and messenger services have high usage among mobile Internet users at 83 per cent, 77 per cent and 65 per cent, respectively, while accessing online videos or games or reading online news are done approximately 2-6 times a week, it said.

“While online games are accessed by nearly 50 per cent of the Mobile Internet users, less than 30 per cent of users read online news and watch online videos,” it added.