India has 55.48 crore mobile users in the country and 14.32 crore internet users, according to a study by research firm Juxt.
Study Highlights:-
India has 554.8 million mobile users
Those users actively use 643.4 million SIMs (Active SIMs)
That is 1.16 active SIMs per user
But they have as many as 773.9 million valid SIMs which they may or may not be actively using (Live SIMs)
That is 1.4 live SIMs per user
Mobile penetration in urban India is 70%; in rural India, it is 36%
There are 23.8 million users who use Internet on their mobile phone using any data connection such as GPRS/EDGE/3G
As many as 110.8 million use services like music/games/video download/bill pay etc using operators’ portals.
95% of all active connections are pre-paid
93% of those are on GSM networks; 7% are on CDMA
9% of the 554.8 million mobile users use multiple SIMs
Rural India has already overtaken urban India in mobile usage. 54% of the users are in villages
298 million mobile users in rural India, using 346.7 million active SIMs
256.2 million mobile users in urban India, using 296.7 million active SIMs
64% of the mobile users are male
Gender divide clearly visible: 55% penetration among male; 37% among female
More than 65% of the mobile users are below 35.
Penetration is highest (75%) among 19-24 age group
Still fairly low (44%) among teens and in 46-55 age group (44%)
Students (33%) and housewives (22%) together account for bulk (55%) of total mobile users
Mobile has clearly become a mass market product with fairly secular penetration across socio-economic categories, both in urban and rural India
Rule of Three is clearly visible
Top three (Airtel, Vodafone, Idea) accounting for 69% of the user base
Airtel leads with 30% of the user base
With 24% of its customers in top three urban socio-economic categories, Vodafone has the best distributed portfolio
However, if ‘data’ and ‘rural’ are the next opportunities, Airtel clearly leads others
61% of Airtel users in villages
It accounts for 38% of all mobile data connection users
In the other potential segment, Youth, Idea leads, with 41% of its users being in the 13-24 age group
Airtel has a better gender ratio among the top three
Study Methodology:-
A large-scale land survey was conducted to profile and estimate the Indian mobile users. The survey covered ‘towns’ and ‘villages’ of all population strata in all the mainland states and union territories in India (covering all the key, and 80 of the total 88 regions in India as classified by NSSO) – all 23 telecom circles were covered extensively
Though the selection of towns and villages was ‘purposive’, the sampling within the towns was done on ‘2-stage random’ basis (firstly a random selection of polling booths, and then a random selection of households from the electoral list within each of these randomly selected polling booths); within villages sampling was done on ‘systematic random’ basis (selection of every nth house in the village)
To estimate the mobile user-ship correctly and to make the findings representative of all mobile users in India (and not just of those surveyed), telecom circle-wise, urban town/village class and SEC combination level ‘household representation weights’ as derived from authentic ‘Govt. of India’ base-level population statistics (NSSO/Census 20111) were applied to the survey data
Study Highlights:-
India has 554.8 million mobile users
Those users actively use 643.4 million SIMs (Active SIMs)
That is 1.16 active SIMs per user
But they have as many as 773.9 million valid SIMs which they may or may not be actively using (Live SIMs)
That is 1.4 live SIMs per user
Mobile penetration in urban India is 70%; in rural India, it is 36%
There are 23.8 million users who use Internet on their mobile phone using any data connection such as GPRS/EDGE/3G
As many as 110.8 million use services like music/games/video download/bill pay etc using operators’ portals.
95% of all active connections are pre-paid
93% of those are on GSM networks; 7% are on CDMA
9% of the 554.8 million mobile users use multiple SIMs
Rural India has already overtaken urban India in mobile usage. 54% of the users are in villages
298 million mobile users in rural India, using 346.7 million active SIMs
256.2 million mobile users in urban India, using 296.7 million active SIMs
64% of the mobile users are male
Gender divide clearly visible: 55% penetration among male; 37% among female
More than 65% of the mobile users are below 35.
Penetration is highest (75%) among 19-24 age group
Still fairly low (44%) among teens and in 46-55 age group (44%)
Students (33%) and housewives (22%) together account for bulk (55%) of total mobile users
Mobile has clearly become a mass market product with fairly secular penetration across socio-economic categories, both in urban and rural India
Rule of Three is clearly visible
Top three (Airtel, Vodafone, Idea) accounting for 69% of the user base
Airtel leads with 30% of the user base
With 24% of its customers in top three urban socio-economic categories, Vodafone has the best distributed portfolio
However, if ‘data’ and ‘rural’ are the next opportunities, Airtel clearly leads others
61% of Airtel users in villages
It accounts for 38% of all mobile data connection users
In the other potential segment, Youth, Idea leads, with 41% of its users being in the 13-24 age group
Airtel has a better gender ratio among the top three
Study Methodology:-
A large-scale land survey was conducted to profile and estimate the Indian mobile users. The survey covered ‘towns’ and ‘villages’ of all population strata in all the mainland states and union territories in India (covering all the key, and 80 of the total 88 regions in India as classified by NSSO) – all 23 telecom circles were covered extensively
Though the selection of towns and villages was ‘purposive’, the sampling within the towns was done on ‘2-stage random’ basis (firstly a random selection of polling booths, and then a random selection of households from the electoral list within each of these randomly selected polling booths); within villages sampling was done on ‘systematic random’ basis (selection of every nth house in the village)
To estimate the mobile user-ship correctly and to make the findings representative of all mobile users in India (and not just of those surveyed), telecom circle-wise, urban town/village class and SEC combination level ‘household representation weights’ as derived from authentic ‘Govt. of India’ base-level population statistics (NSSO/Census 20111) were applied to the survey data
