Data Access Still Low Despite Unlimited Data Offer: Study

Mobile data usage in India has quadrupled in eight months due to competitive and unlimited data tariff plans being offered by various telecom operators such as Jio, Airtel, Vodafone over the past few months, according to mobile balance management app, True Balance. However, despite such data offer, the report states that 56 percent of smartphone users have been found to be offline, without access to the internet, at least once a day, while 11 percent stay offline for more than 24 hours.

The report noted that the data connectivity environment is still poor leading to devices being exposed to the offline environment on large. Alex Suh, General Director of Data Analysis, True Balance, said, “We have found that across India, the connections are patchy and users often find gaps in network coverage depending on their location.

This is why, despite the mobile data usage in the country increasing significantly, there is still prevalence of users found experiencing offline state in a day. While the data connectivity issue has improved considerably since last year, there is still scope to address the main issues behind poor connectivity and get these numbers further down.”

Despite these connectivity hiccups, the report goes on to reveal that though the percentage of mobile devices with 24-hour data usage has been increasing steadily since last year.

Users who use the mobile data online for 24-hours were just 7 percent in July 2016 and now that number has increased to 44 percent as of April 2017.

The advent of low-priced handsets and tablets compatible to access the Internet has also contributed to a significant increase in online mobile data subscribers. Services such as e-mails, social networking, online shopping and use of different search engines are the key drivers of internet consumption in India.