"I use internet on my phone for all kinds of stuff," Kavya says. "I use it for social media — I use it for iMessage, WhatsApp — I use it for researching if I need to know something about something, you know?"
Young, social media savvy, and constantly on their smartphones, Kavya and Manya are part of an on-going "data revolution," just two of hundreds of millions of mobile data users in India today. Lured by online shopping, social networks, and tanking prices, Indians are rushing to buy smartphones and sign up for data plans.
India is the fastest growing smartphone market in Asia, according to International Data Corporation (IDC). 23.3 million smartphones were shipped in Q3 of 2014, nearly double the 12.8 million units that were sold the same time last year. Low prices are helping fuel the frenzy.
"We have the lowest rates for voice and data in the world," says Hement Joshi, a telecommunications analyst at Deloitte. Smartphone prices, too, have been dropping, with average prices hitting $135 this year and forecasted to drop further to $102 in 2018, says IDC research.
Because of the breakneck growth, the telecom business has seen a paradigm shift in its service business towards data. Mobile data revenue growth has been skyrocketing at all major telecommunications companies in the past few years, constituting an ever-large portion of service revenues — a trend with no signs of slowing down.
"What we've seen is a more than 50% growth in the last two quarters, and I think it's going to further accelerate," Joshi says.
At Airtel, India's largest telecommunications company, latest figures report that mobile data revenues grew 66.7% year over year. In 2012, mobile data made up only 3.5% of total service revenues; the latest figures released in October show it has hit 14.5%, with no signs of slowing down. Over at Vodafone, data subscription growth is eye-popping - in June 2011, Vodafone reported 26 million data subscribers - a figure that's more than doubled to 57 million this June.
3G — a service that only first appeared roughly four years ago — is also booming. Leading the pack is Reliance Communications. With 13 3G centers, Reliance has the largest number of 3G centers in the industry - and with 12.9 million subscribers, also the most 3G subscribers, nearly double what it was last year at 7.2 million.
"When I got a smartphone three year back, I got 3G," says Aalekh Sharan, an International Innovation Corps fellow working at a renewable energy company. "People want responses to your emails really fast. It's one of those things - you don't realize you need it, but right now I wouldn't be able to imagine if I don't have 3G."
However, despite off-the-chart growth, the industry faces challenges in mobile data growth as well. "The challenge is lack of spectrum — it's not enough to handle the volume of data," says Joshi. "The problem is coming out with some kind of roadmap. The broadcasting industry can vacate the spectrum which is very efficient for the data, and we need a confident plan for the auctions — right now it's all a little ad hoc."
Another major challenge is mobile data penetration into rural and regional markets, as most online content is online and geared towards urban, cosmopolitan customers. "Local regional content is very critical for further growth", says Joshi.
The total number of telecom subscribers has been growing along with mobile data, and now stands at 942.95 million people. However, it's been growing much slower — the year over year increase was only 4.41%, in contrast to the double and triple digit growth seen in mobile data.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/followceleb.cms?alias=WhatsApp,Social media,mobile data,data revolution,cheap smartphones
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