The usage of WiFi network by smartphone users in India has declined between January and March, according to a study done by Opensignal.

The mobile analytics firm revealed that time spent on WiFi networks in India has dipped from 10.2 per cent in January to 9.8 per cent in March. The study also revealed that Indian mobile data consumers are among the lowest users of WiFi networks in the world.

In countries like Australia and Japan, mobile users prefer to hook onto a WiFi network more than 60 per cent of the overall time spent consuming data services.

“In contrast to many other countries, Opensignal did not detect a statistically significant week-on-week increase in the percentage of time Indian smartphone users have spent on Wifi between the second week of January and the third week of March,” Opensignal said in a release.

“Countries in the region where we have detected significant increases in time on Wifi in either or both the second and third weeks of March include Australia, Malaysia and the Philippines. We are also seeing the first signs of a rise in Time on Wifi in Thailand,” it added.

While Opensignal did not go into the reason for the decline in the time spent on WiFi networks in India, industry experts said that low data tariff packages in India allow users to stay on with cellular network service providers instead of shifting to a WiFi network.

“Most users prefer using their cellular data given that the tariffs are so low. Secondly, in India, WiFi networks are usually found in offices or in public places like railway stations. With the ongoing lockdown, everyone is at home using either cellular data or fixed broadband in their homes,” said an industry expert.

Due to the ‘work from home’ policy for both public and private employees following the Covid-19 outbreak, there has been a 30 per cent rise in data consumption and this will continue during the lockdown period. Certain metropolitan cities such as Hyderabad and Bengaluru have posted 70 per cent rise in cellular network data consumption since the lockdown came into effect.

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