DNA Edit – Quantum leap: India’s demand for mobile data is limitless

Size does matter. India’s voracious appetite for data, it would appear, is never ending. Naturally in a country this size and with an educated population that runs into hundreds of millions, mobile data will always be in demand. According to one estimate, data consumed by Indians would have jumped by a whopping 72 per cent from 2017 to 2022. Such has the awareness and appetite for smartphones increased that internet penetration, that stood at 30.2 per cent in 2017, will rise to 56.7 per cent  in the next three years. Naturally, there is a huge leap of interest in smartphones. In 2017, the number of smartphones stood at 468 million, and it’s expected to climb up to 859 million in three years. It is but natural that given India’s burgeoning democracy, the need for information is nearly as important as oxygen itself. Apart from news and views, the areas of interest are truly eclectic — from politics, films, sports to stock markets, financial information and foreign clippings — all are consumed with a passion that is unmatched. What is even more interesting is the growing number of internet users in rural areas. While urban India has embraced the net with ardor, rural areas, which were slow starters to begin with, are catching on. In 2018, India had 483 million internet users. This figure is projected to grow to 666.4 million internet users in 2023. Despite the untapped potential, India already is the second-largest online market worldwide. In this internet surge, the major beneficiary will be Video on Demand (VoD). Voice services, that once dominated the net, will give way to VoD. Voice streaming now constitutes roughly 65-75 per cent of the traffic. But there is also a flip side. While internet penetration is on an upswing, the same cannot be said about connectivity and consistency as far as speed is concerned. That is an issue which needs to be addressed.