Ericsson has published its yearly ConsumerLab report, which highlights evolving mobile broadband usage in urban India. The report covers diverse behaviour and requirements of different segments of mobile broadband users. Further, it tracks the key trends influencing smartphone user habits and consumer expectations that are shaping the telecom sector in the country.
According to Ericsson, 48 per cent of the Indian telecom users believe that there is no difference between 2G and 3G speeds. Meanwhile, 63 per cent of Indian broadband users face quality and reliability issues including lost connections and inconsistent network speeds, when connecting to mobile networks indoors.
About 68 per cent of consumers have application-related issues while accessing internet outdoors or commuting. These issues include longer lag times, download and session failures. Such issues are more common in mid-size and small towns compared to large cities.
Connection quality and reliability problems have a higher tendency to occur indoors, while session failures and poor applications accessibility are few of the issues faced by outdoor smartphone users.
Affordability and digital literacy are the prime obstacles to adoption for consumers who do not use mobile broadband. About 88 per cent of the consumers on 2G network are of the view that mobile broadband is too expensive. About 53 per cent are of the view that mobile broadband adds no value and 48 per cent believe there is no difference between 2G and 3G speeds.
Mobile internet usage is expected to grow with the consumers? better understanding of the data plans on offer. About 10 per cent of mobile internet users stated they knew data speed and price details regarding plans that choose.
The adoption of mobile Internet within the lower socio-economic segment in India has increased from 38 per cent in 2013 to 45 per cent in 2015
The growth driver for the mobile Internet adoption in the country is the availability of cost effective smartphones in India. India has around 900 million mobile customers.
About 60 per cent of the smartphone users use mobile broadband in urban India. Smartphone penetration in mid-size and small cities is 33 per cent as against 27 per cent in big non metros and large cities.
The proportion of smartphone users above the age of 50 has quadrupled, from 1 per cent in 2013 to 4 per cent in 2015. The key factor for this increase is the desire to connect with loved ones, particularly through emails, chat applications and instant messaging.
Video streaming is the fastest growing service on mobile data, followed by social networking. 70 per cent of mobile broadband smartphone users regularly stream videos on their smartphones, and 61 per cent use social networking.
Of the total users not using e-commerce services currently, 58 per cent stated that they would begin to do so in the next six months, while 52 per cent will use the internet to pay bill online. Services like location navigation while travelling and cloud storage are also witnessing an increase in usage.
