Internet has become the backbone of the entire economic machinery. Internet is currently indispensable in most of the work areas and the rural penetration is something that we should keep a keen eye on.
The Internet subscriber’s base has increased from a previous 238.71 million at the end of 2013 to 251.9 million at the end of march 2014 which is a whopping 5.4% increase over a Quarter Amongst this the total number of wired internet subscribers stands at 18.50 million and the wireless subscribers at 233.09 million.
The broadband internet users have grown from 55.2 million at the end of 2013 to 60.87 million at the end of March 2014 with a Quarterly growth pegged 10.28 percent.
Narrowband users on the other hand have increased from 183.51 million at the end of December to 190.72 million at the end of March 2014 with the Quarter to Quarter growth of 3.93 percent. The Graph below clearly depicts that the number of wireless internet users is extremely high as compared to the Fixed Internet users.
Looking at the growth can Indian operators improve the quality of services and improve the speed ? Even recently TRAI asked operators to deliver Minimum Download speed to Customers for 80% Usage time.