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India Internet Usage Stats and Telecommunications Market Report

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Despite the considerable popularity of Internet in India, the ISP market was for a long time in disarray. It appears to some extent to have settled down. After a period of market rationalisation, there are now around 160 operational ISPs in the country. Despite the large number of providers, just 10% of the ISPs have 90% of the subscribers. In fact, 5% have 88%. The state-owned BSNL and MTNL continue to dominate the market, holding first and second place in terms of Internet subscribers and a massive 70% of the total subscriber base. Cybercaf�s have certainly been playing a major role in fuelling the development of Internet in India. About half of the total Internet subscriber base finally had broadband access coming into 2010. Despite this relatively high proportion, development of broadband Internet in India remains particularly slow, to the deep consternation of the government. This report also takes a look at the Internet market in India as the country moves slowly towards its online objectives.

India continues to be one of the fastest growing major telecom markets in the world. It is also one of the largest. Sweeping reforms introduced by successive Indian governments over the last decade have dramatically changed the nature of telecommunications in the country. The mobile sector has grown from around 10 million subscribers in 2002 to pass the 750 million mark by the end of 2010 and the market was growing strongly into 2011. GSM technology continued to dominate the mobile market in India; while CDMA still clings to a market share of around 15%. The boom in the mobile industry was expected to continue at least into the medium term, boosted by the allocation of 3G licences in 2010 and the large scale roll-out of networks in 2011. The fixed-line market, which had grown strongly for a while, was experiencing zero and negative growth of late. There has been a fresh effort made to promote broadband internet access throughout the country; after a period in which broadband development languished and the government became concerned, there was new hope for a serious expansion phase in this segment of the market. In the meantime, the government has been continuing to push to complete the restructuring of the telecommunications regulatory regime. The opening up of the market to full scale competition has been dramatic; however, some major challenges remain.

This report presents the key measures and takes a general look at India�s telecom market together with the direction it is heading. It also considers the evolving regulatory landscape.

YEAR

Users

Population

% Pen.

Usage Source

1998

1,400,000

1,094,870,677

0.1 %

ITU

1999

2,800,000

1,094,870,677

0.3 %

ITU

2000

5,500,000

1,094,870,677

0.5 %

ITU

2001

7,000,000

1,094,870,677

0.7 %

ITU

2002

16,500,000

1,094,870,677

1.6 %

ITU

2003

22,500,000

1,094,870,677

2.1 %

ITU

2004

39,200,000

1,094,870,677

3.6 %

C.I. Almanac

2005

50,600,000

1,112,225,812

4.5 %

C.I. Almanac

2006

40,000,000

1,112,225,812

3.6 %

IAMAI

2007

42,000,000

1,129,667,528

3.7 %

IWS

2009

81,000,000

1,156,897,766

7.0 %

ITU

2010

100,000,000

1,173,108,018

8.5 %

IWS

source:internetworldstats

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