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Good news is that cost of smart phones and data download in India are among the lowest in the world and that India is the third largest player by number of Internet users.
But bad news is that affordability of people to buy phones and quality of signals are very low in the country. India is home to the largest number of non-Internet user population in the world. Low penetration of Internet means that poor utilisation of information available in the web to improve quality of life.
In a 127-page report, the global consultancy and research firm McKinsey has said that low income levels are forcing the people to keep away from the data plans. “Even with the low absolute prices of devices and data plans compared with the rest of the world, Internet access remains beyond the grasp of about 95 crore people,” the report said.
The report will be discussed at the next week’s Internet.org conference in Delhi. Facebook has worked with McKinsey to conduct the state of the Internet in the world.
Zuckerberg comingFacebook founder-CEO Mark Zuckerberg will be present in the conference. He will meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi and is likely to discuss the company’s expansion plan in the country and on the collaborative efforts to proliferate Internet access to the masses.
India is among a few other countries on which the report gave detailed information on the state of Internet connectivity.
The report, titled ‘Offline and falling behind: Barriers to Internet adoption’, is going to be launched during the Internet.org conference scheduled to be held in Delhi in the second week of October.
“Even the cheapest data plans are simply too expensive, equal to 13 per cent of the total spending of people in the segment. Acceleration in rising income levels could change the picture significantly,” the report said.
Internet users will growMcKinsey has predicted that the country would add about 30 crore Internet users by 2018, taking the total number to 50 crore users.
Another major hurdle it found for poor Internet penetration was very high levels of illiteracy. “India’s illiterate adult population accounts for 37 per cent of the global total. We estimate that 43 per cent of the 110 crore offline population are illiterate,” it said.
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