The document summarizes the growth of digital connectivity in India, noting that internet users have grown from 10 million in 2002 to over 300 million in 2015. It highlights key drivers like increasing smartphone penetration and expanding access to rural areas. However, it also notes issues like high bandwidth costs, a lack of local language content, and regulatory uncertainty around net neutrality. The government is launching various initiatives like Digital India, a national optical fiber network, and free public WiFi to further develop internet infrastructure and accessibility across the country.

1. #APRICOT2015
THE INDIAN DIGITAL
REVOLUTION
PEERING FORUM | APRICOT 2015
Vivin Varghese Meleadan
vivin.v@webwerks.in
1

2. Narendra Modi
Prime Minister of India
"Some 25 to 30 years ago, the world used to think we
are a land of snake charmers and black magic. But our
youth has surprised the world with its IT skills.“
"I dream of a digital India. It was once said railways
connects India. Today I say IT connects India... I fully
believe a digital India can compete with the world."

3. #APRICOT2015
Demographics of India
Population 1,267,401,849 as of July 1 2014.
India's population is equivalent to 17.5% of the total world population.
India ranks number 2 in the list of countries by population.
32% of the population is urban (410 million people in 2014).
The median age in India is 26.6 years.
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4. Communications in India
Population : 1277 million
Telephone Subscribers : 970.97 million (Dec’14)
• Fixed lines : 27 million (Nov’14)
• Mobile phones : 943.97 million (Dec’14)
Monthly telephone additions : 5.8 million (Sep’14)
Teledensity : 77.58%
Rural Teledensity : 46.09%
Broadband internet users : 85.74 million (Dec’14)
• Wireless broadband : 70.42 million are on
• Wired Broadband : 15.32 million on wired broadband
Revenue : USD 33,350 million
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5. #APRICOT2015
GROWTH OF INTERNET IN INDIA
• Commercial Internet was Introduced by VSNL on 15 August 1995
• In 2002 we reached 10 Million Users
• 100 Million Users in 2011
• 200 Million in 2013
• 300 Million in 2015
• And is expected to reach 500 Million Users by 2018 and is now
adding more than 6 million new users every month.
• This number has grown by 25 times in the last 12 years at a
compounded rate of over 30 percent y-o-y.
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6. Year Internet Users
User
Growth
Penetration
Global
Rank
2014 243,198,922 14% 19.19% 3
2013 213,339,324 37% 17.04% 3
2012 155,575,944 27% 12.58% 3
2011 122,970,441 36% 10.07% 3
2010 90,421,849 48% 7.50% 4
2009 60,935,069 18% 5.12% 6
2008 51,450,210 12% 4.38% 6
2007 45,784,262 43% 3.95% 6
2006 32,074,981 19% 2.81% 7
2005 26,917,033 23% 2.39% 7
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Internet users (Million)
600
~580
~430
400
~330
~260
~200
200 ~170
~6
0
0
2009 2013 201
4
2015 201
6
2017 2018
Rural Urban Conservative scenarios
Changes in affordability and reach variables disproportionately affects rural user growth
Growth of Internet In India
Key Drivers
• High penetration of smartphones.
• Expansion to small town / rural
India,
• Increased affordability due to
lower cost data-enabled handsets
• Ever increasing awareness of, and
need for, the Internet.
In 2013 alone, contribution of Internet to India’s GDP was 2.7% (USD 60 billion) and is estimated
to contribute 4% of GDP by 2020
India Internet Population to Reach Half a Billion by 2018
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8. Older
Rural
Gender
balances
Mobile
Mobile
The 2018 Internet Population Will be Older, More Rural, More Gender Balanced.
More Mobile, and More Language
2013 2018
•60% under 25 • 54% over 25
•29% rural • 40–50% rural
•2.6 men online for every woman
online
•1.9 men for every woman among 18–
24 years olds
•60-70% of users •70-80% of users
•45% of users use vernacular content •62% print media market language in 2013
•70-90% Indians do not speak English, less
than 1% speak as primary language
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MOBILE BROADBAND GROWTH IN 2014
• Mobile Internet traffic surpassed desktop internet usage in May 2012
• 74% rise in mobile data traffic
• 3G data consumption was 52% of the total data consumption in Dec
2014 (42% in Jan 2014)
• Average 3G user consumed 3.2 times more data than a 2G user.
• 3G data use increased to 688MB per , 29% higher compared to 2013.
• Awaiting for All India Rollout of 4G Network to boost the Internet usage.
2010 2011 2012 2013 2014
335,858.00 649,977.00 912,708.00 1,226,939.73 1,691,749.14
India’s Total Internet bandwidth (in Mbps) for 2010-2014#APRICOT2015

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Mumbai, India
• Asia Africa Europe-1 (AAE-1)
• Bay of Bengal Gateway (BBG)
• Europe India Gateway (EIG)
• FLAG Europe-Asia (FEA)
• FLAG FALCON
• Gulf Bridge International Cable
System (GBICS)
• IMEWE
• SEACOM/Tata TGN-Eurasia
• SeaMeWe-3
• SeaMeWe-4
• SeaMeWe-5
Cochin, India
• SAFE
• SeaMeWe-3
Chennai, India
• Bay of Bengal Gateway (BBG)
• SeaMeWe-4
• Tata TGN-Tata Indicom
• i2i Cable Network (i2icn)
Tuticorine, India
• Bharat Lanka Cable System
Trivandrum, India
• WARF Submarine Cable
Submarine Cable Systems in India
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11. BUT !!

12. • Global Internet Penetration : 139th ( 15.1%)
• Mobile broadband Penetration : 111th (3.2%)
• Risk of Internet disruption based on international links : 3rd
• Download Speed for Fixed Internet Access (Mb/s): 127th (3.45)
• Affordability : 80th (4.35%)
• Limits on Content : 11th (12)
INDIA’S RANKING AS PER
GLOBAL INTERNET REPORT 2014 OF ISOC
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16. WHY !!

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CURRENT ISSUES : ISP
• High Bandwidth Cost
• Telecom Regulations
• Net Neutrality Issues
• Local Content Availability
• Knowledge and Training
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18. #APRICOT2015
LANGUAGE BARRIER
The 10 most common languages spoken over the world are
English at the 3
Hindi at 4
Bengali at 7
Punjabi at the 10
• Only 1/6th of Indian Population can read, write and talk in English (200 Million)
• 1/2 of the population have identified Hindi as their mother tongue. (600 Million+)
• In rural India, 43% said they would adopt the Internet if they had content in their
local language.
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Net Neutrality in India
• India has no laws governing net neutrality as on Date.
• Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI)
• TRAI guidelines for the Unified Access Service license
promotes net neutrality, it does not enforce it.
• Don't allow differential pricing of services on the Internet &
let the consumers choose how they want to use Internet.
• Set to issue a consultation paper on regulating the over-the-
top players (OTT) soon.

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Internet Tax in India
Cellular operators association of India (COAI) have been pressurizing the
Indian government to make IM (Instant Messaging Apps) and OTTs (Over the
top operators like Whatsapp, Nimbuzz etc.) to be regulated so that users can be
charged separately for these services even if they have paid for the data packs.

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Airtel Vs Net Neutrality
• In February 2014, Gopal Vittal, CEO of Airtel's India operations, said that companies offering
free messaging apps like Skype, Line and Whatsapp should be regulated similar to telecom
operators.
• In December 2014, Airtel changed its service terms for 2G and 3G data packs so that VoIP
data was excluded from the set amount of free data.
• A standard data charge of ₹0.04per 10 KB for 3G service and ₹0.10 per 10 KB for 2G
service was levied on VoIP data
• A few days later Airtel announced a separated internet pack for VoIP apps, it offered 75 MB
for ₹75 with a validity of 28 days.
• On 29 Dec’14, Airtel announced that it would not be implementing planned changes.
• Airtel Subscriber Base on Sep’14 : 210 million
• 90% Market is Pre Paid with Average User Spend of INR 150
• Only 11 Million on 3G , Cost of 1G 3G Data at INR 250
1 US Dollar equals 61.83 Indian Rupee#APRICOT2015

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Major Issues : Consumer Perspective
• Affordability
• Network Availability
• Local language content
• Regulatory framework
• Lack of Digital education
• Facilitating digital transactions
• Internet governance mechanism
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23. How to Develop Next
Gen Internet in India?

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25. #APRICOT2015

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27. Digital India Campaign
• Govt to launch people-centric services including digital lockers, cloud
sharing, electronic signature, WiFi hot spots and e-textbook
projects.
• Indian Army Will Soon be 100% Digital & Cloud Enabled. The whole
system going paperless with highly encrypted cloud storage being set up.
• e-Kranti, wherein government services would be electronically delivered
• The Indian government is planning to introduce free Wi-Fi connectivity
at select public places in top 25 cities of the country.
• eGovernance in every government department, wherein 100% paper-less
environment will be encouraged
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28. National Optical Fibre Network (BBNL)
National Optical Fibre Network of India is being organised to provide
broadband connectivity to over 2.5 lakh villages by broadband and phones
• Wi-fi in 2.5 lakh schools, all universities
• Public wi-fi hotspots for citizens
• To enable the government of India to provide e-services and e-
applications nationally.
• Training 1.7 crore citizens for IT, telecom and electronics jobs, and
delivering e-governance and e-services.
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29. Data Center Cluster
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31. Free Wi-Fi Roll Out
Government plans free Wi-Fi in 2,500 cities, towns in mega internet push
Kolkata Becomes India’s First WiFi Metro City (Feb 6) covering all the 149
wards in the city with Free Wifi on Reliance Jio 4G network.
• Indian Railways is all set to introduce WiFi across 400 stations all over the
country, and in some select trains
• In October 2014, Bangalore Railway Station became the first station in the
country to have WiFi connectivity for all passengers. The service is free
for the first 30 minutes.
According to Ozone, Wifi Hotspot Provider with 6500 locations ( in Big Cities),
• 45 Million users access Internet in Public Areas
• Average time Spend have increased from 10 mins to 45 Minutes.
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32. Internet.Org, India
• RCom and Facebook announce Internet.org in India, to provide free
access to 33 websites
• The service has been launched in seven circles and will work for both
existing and new RCom subscribers and will work on feature phones as
well as Android smartphones.
• The free access to websites include news, maternal health, travel, local
jobs, sports, communication, and local government information.
Reliance Communications offers free Twitter for the ICC World Cup 2015
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34. Vivin Varghese Meleadan
vivin.v@webwerks.in
THANK YOU !!
AS 33480
#APRICOT2015

35. REFERNCES
• The Akamai State of the Internet
Report
• India IT-BPM Overview :
NASSCOM
• Statista.com
• Scoopwhoop.com
• wikipedia.org
• www.idc.com
• www.ericsson.com/mobility-report
• www.internetsociety.org
• www.asa.in
• networks.nokia.com
• www.coai.com
• www.trak.in
• www.medianama.com