Provide platform for boost in broadband connectivity

Although India has relatively fewer Internet users — 7 per cent of the population compared to 32 per cent in China and 77 per cent in the United States — its scope for becoming a true-blue digital society based on mobile phones is high. As much is evident from the 54 per cent increase in the transmission of data on mobiles between December last year and June this year. The rise in the volume of traffic is not surprising considering that the costs of network access and handsets are going down and the numbers of wireless networks are going up. It may not be long, therefore, before more and more people switch from personal computers to mobiles.

What the growing demand for web browsing, which accounts for 81 per cent of the 2G data traffic, and the downloading of videos, accounting for 17 per cent, highlights is the need for augmenting the availability of broadband services. While the 2G network is driving the use of broadband on mobiles, 3G is pushing it to ‘unprecedented levels’, according to a spokesman of a mobile network service. The data traffic generated by 3G has increased by 78 per cent even as that of 2G has gone up by 47 per cent. The reliability of this information cannot be doubted since it has been collected by a company with 300 million subscribers, representing a third of India’s 2G and 3G mobile networks.

Even if the use of Internet is still largely an urban phenomenon with 88 million of the 112 million users living in the cities, the increasing use of mobiles for the purpose will bring more people in the villages and small towns into the communications revolution. Moreover, a greater number of elderly people are likely to use Internet services whereas at present 75 per cent of the users are young. However, the fact that 59 per cent of Internet users have gone online only through mobiles points to the high potential of the link between this gadget, of which there are nearly 900 million in India, and Internet services.