Ghazanfar Abbas

 Internet users to touch 420 million by June 2017: IAMAI report Today, news that prevail media is the mobile internet users in India. Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) has issued a report today. It says that the internet users in India will reach 420 million by June 2017. This growth is due to increased use of mobile internet by rural population. The mobile internet users in rural areas have shown an increase of 26%. This growth of mobile internet users in rural areas is due to saturation in the urban areas. Report says that mobile internet users in the urban areas have increased 9% which is a lot less than stats of rural areas. It further added that the 51% of population in urban areas use mobile internet. This is a lot close to saturation point. Whereas, the mobile internet users in rural areas are 16% and there is a chance of much growth. All the internet service providers are targeting the rural areas. Experts are of the view that this increase is due to cheap internet packages by telecom companies. The billing stats of consumers are also checked for this purpose. These stats also prove that more than 60% amount of bill of every consumer is in the consumption of internet. The internet bill of consumers has shown an increase from 45% to 65% over the last 5 years. Most of the mobile internet users are of the age group less than 25 years. It means that most of the students are among the users of mobile internet. The urban users use mobile internet for social networking, communication, and also entertainment. In the rural areas people use mobile internet for communication and social networking. The availability of affordable mobile sets is also another reason of this growth. Thus, IAMAI and IMRB are expecting this number to reach 420 million as compared with 389 million in the last December.