Web surfers via mobiles double in India, grab 4th spot in the world

The number of people entering Cyberspace via their cellphones has more than doubled in India in the past year, making the country home to the fourth largest population — behind the U.K., the U.S. and South Africa — browsing the Internet through mobile handsets, according to a study reported by the PTI. One in every 11 people logging on to the Web across the world through cellphones is an Indian, U.K.-based mobile Web technology company Bango Plc. said in its report. This year Indians account for 9 percent of the mobile Web users population globally, up from just 4 percent a year earllier.”India, with a population of just over 1.1 billion and lack of an established fixed phone line network, relies on mobile phones to stay in touch,” Bango CEO Ray Anderson said. What’s more, the report forecasts Indian mobile phone usage to exceed European levels within the next few years. “We see that wherever flat-rate mobile data charges are pervasive in a country, then there’s much more web browsing,” Bango CEO Ray Anderson said.
But I have my doubts about the rapid and widespread adoption of mobile Web usage in India. Surfing the Web on your cellphones using GPRS, or 2.5G technology, can be time consuming and unsatisfactory — see this study that talks about the frustrations of U.K. users. Besides, with Dayanidhi Maran no longer the communications and information technology minister, the much-awaited 3G spectrum policy may be delayed further.

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