Mobile internet revolution in India

a long flyover at electronic city in Bangalore 

Cheap data internet mobile services and affordable smart phones are bridging the digital divide in India.

The way to Bangalore’s swanky electronic city tells the story of India. You have to go past massive potholed roads before you are suddenly transformed into a super-highway that leaps over what is described as India’s Silicon Valley.

The taxi driver jokingly tells me, “the potholes remind us that we are still in India!”

Whist everyone say that potholes are a result of India’s endemic corruption, which contributes to the country’s inequitable growth and development; in the digital sphere, however, the story is different.

Affordable smart phones and very cheap mobile internet packages are giving millions of Indians the first taste of the internet by simply bypassing the era of personal computers.

young people showing their smart phones

In the streets of Banglaore, we interview people from all walks of life.  Rajnath a auto rickshaw (tuk tuk) driver tells us, "personally for me the internet is of not much use, but my customers often use GPS maps to give me  directions. Sometimes, it helps me to discover routes I wouldn’t know about. ” Mohammad Sultan, a tomoato vendor, tells us that he uses Google to look out for jobs and keep in touch with friends on Facebook.

 We visit a low-income group market, where the shopkeepers are mostly middle aged. They tell us they don’t use the internet on phones, but say that their children own smart phones.  Salim, a street garment retailer, shows us his Indian made smart phone. He proudly shows us his music collection and tells us that he is very active on whatsapp and Facebook.

India’s mobile market is growing rapidly. There are more than billion mobile phones used by over 600 million people in a country where the average age is just 25. The smart phone market, which occupies 20 % of India’s mobile market share is expected to double by 2014.

Sudhir Hasija

We meet up with Sudhir Hasija, chairman of Karbonn mobile phones- an Indian start-up manufacturing affordable mobile phones. Karbonn has a market share of 4.5% in India.  It sold 35 million handsets in just over three and half years.

The smiling chairman shows us the range of his products. His high-end smartphone is priced at Rs 11,000 ($165) and boasts all the functions of any other popular smartphones. His low -end internet enabled feature phone cost Rs 3000 ($45). The tablets made by the company are just for Rs 6000($90) and  have been given out to rural school children in various government sponsored schemes aimed at educating the less -privileged rural children. 

Mr Hasija says: “our strength lies in anticipating what people want, we know where India is growing and we have different phones for different markets.”

He says: “In India 80% of the population use low -end phones but they want a good camera; they want the radio. The 3G services don’t even exist in rural India hence they need to be given a product that look big, but also has the basic functions and can run on 2G. In urban India the demand is different.  The young population is trendy, fashionable and Facebook savvy. They prefer cheap smart phones.”

 India’s home grown smart phone companies control 30 % of the domestic market and are giving tough competition to the likes of Nokia and Samsung in the low segment category of mobile phones.

 Along side cheap mobile handsets, the mobile service providers are offering data internet at a very nominal cost.

Bharti Airtel, an Indian telecom service provider active in 20 countries in Asia and Africa say the internet data consumption has grown by 117% compared to the corresponding figure last year. It says  2G & 3G continue to lead the mobile segment growth through deeper penetration and consumption.  The company attributes its success to the smart marketing campaign: it rolled out Re 1(0.02 cents) video downloads for its mobile customers across India to give them a taste of mobile internet experience.

 

Following the success, the company has more recently launched email and Facebook access services at Re 1. Bharti Airtel  has also collaborated with Google to provide Free Zone, which gives Airtel mobile customers access to mobile web search and feature-phone-friendly versions of Gmail and Google+ in India. The first page of a website linked from search results is provided at no data cost.

Rajan Anandan, VP and Managing Director, Google India says,  “the mobile Internet user base is growing really fast in India. Working with Airtel on this exciting trial means that we can offer Internet services at no cost to anyone with a phone.”

We caught up with Pieters Marten, head of Vodafone in India. He said the Internet enabled mobile phones have given a sense of privacy for the first time to many Indians. People can watch, listen and chat freely. In many Indian households such freedom doesn’t exist or is restricted.

The potential of the fast growing developing markets hasn’t gone unnoticed in the developed world. On the other side of the globe, Facebook has announced plans to drastically cut the cost of delivering basic Internet services on mobile phones, particularly in developing countries. It is an interesting example of how in the era of globalisation the rich and the developing world are connected in terms of policy and business sense!

 A report by The International Herald Tribune says that Facebook is working with major mobile manufactures to simplify phone applications so they run more efficiently on phones and networks so that they transmit more data while using less battery power.

 

It is hoped that in the years to come, with the efforts of global community, the internet and new technologies will greatly empower millions of people in the developing  world and help them to leap on a digital information highway much like the motorway over Bangalore’s electronic city!