Broadband and Internet India

Everyday update on Broadband and Internet market in India.

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Wednesday, December 27, 2006

Get ready to Rock'N'Roll with Nokia's NYE Party in 5 cities worldwide. Nokia just can't ignore India where it is the fastest selling Mobile handset company. Nokia party begins @ 10.30 PM IST on the 31st at Andheri Sports Complex, Mumbai. The performers include Bollywood's best Priyanka Chopra and Shahid Kapur joining hands with Nelly Furtado. You can also watch it live on Star Plust at 10:30 PM IST.

You can be part of Nokia's NYE Party in Mumbai, for details check out NokiaNewYearsEve.Com.
Nokia also has a cool new WAP Portal Wap.NokiaNewYearsEve.com where you can download True-Tones, Wallpapers of Priyanka Chopra and other artists, countdown clock, etc.

Wishing you all a very Cheerful Year 2007.

Tags: Broadband India, Nokia Party, New Year Party

Published on Wednesday, December 27, 2006 at 6:52 PM 0 comments

Friday, December 15, 2006

Internet India - Online Statistics

Here are some findings about how Indians are using the Internet in their daily life.

Online Shoppers in India: India at the end of June-30-2006 approximately had 3.49 Million online shoppers.

e-Commerce in India: Airline ticket purchase constituted the largest e-commerce activity according to VISA. Around 40% of online shoppers in India bought flight tickets. 29% of shoppers bought books and 24% bought Music.

e-Trade India: Around 17% of Indian investors are now using the internet platform to trade and invest their savings in Stock Markets. [ET - 14-DEC-06]

However, this user base could have been much higher had the Indian government addressed some key issues such as,

Internet Security and lack of alternate online payment methods.
e-retailing may slow down brick and motor sales in sectors such as Books, electronic goods, Music and Shoes / Sportswear.

Will m-commerce eat into e-commerce ? Maybe, but areas of application will be different, say you use your mobile to book weekend movie tickets while you will still buy books from the comforts of your PC.

Tags: Internet India Statistics, India Online Shopping, Broadband India, India Tickets

Published on Friday, December 15, 2006 at 7:10 PM 0 comments

Tuesday, December 12, 2006

Indian Gamers Profile and Market

The size of Indian gaming market is projected to be around Rs 1,500 crores ($333 Million) by 2008. Various reports have different estimates about the current size of the Indian gaming market, but it is likely to be around Rs500 crores for 2006. This means the share of Indian gaming market is mere 0.25% of the world's gaming market share.

The average age of an Indian gamer is 20 years and has an household income greater than 30K per month.

Only 12% of the Indian Gamers are women.

Published on Tuesday, December 12, 2006 at 7:34 PM 0 comments

Thursday, December 07, 2006

Airtel CallHome Vs Reliance Calling Card

It took nearly 2 years for Bharti Tele-Ventures Ltd to compete with Reliance Communications' Reliance India Call. Airtel has finally launched a calling card for the Indian diaspora in the US.
The Deal - It is the same as their Virtual Calling Card available in India which costs Rs 3.5 / Minute to call the US. Alternatively, it costs the same for NRIs to call India 7.9 cents / Minute to any phone in India.

Reliance India Call - Their India to US Calling Card costs Rs 4.5 / Minute while from US to India, rates vary depending on the phone the call terminates. It is flat 9.9 cents / minute to any Reliance phone and 12.9 cents / Minute to any other phone in India .

Though Anail Ambani's Reliance owns Flag Telecom the international carrier, RCom is still unable to compete and match Airtel's offer and customer service. It's high time that someone reading this from Dhirubhai Ambani Knowledge Park review RCom's customer service.

Tags: Calling Card, Reliance Communications, Airtel CallHome Calling Card, India Calling Card

Published on Thursday, December 07, 2006 at 7:44 PM 0 comments

Wednesday, December 06, 2006

Nokia - HP to introduce GPS devices in India

BSNL has launched location based tracking - an SMS application for fleet and logistics business owners. India's largest mobile handset company [marketshare], Nokia has joined hands with HP to introduce a new device - Location Based Tracking / Gaming. With GPS enabled devices you can receive the exact latitude and longitude co-ordinates from satellites.

Reminds me of the Treasure Hunt I went in the summer of 2005 with folks in Seattle carrying one such device. Their are virtual Treasures hidden throughout the city and you will be given clues to locate the same. You can also use this device for Location based gaming such as car racing. You can challenge your friend to travel between Delhi and Noida within 10 minutes and the log of your track being recorded on this device.

Nokia's N95 is the first mobile that is having GPS capabilities and is expected to be available in India from Jan-2007. N95 will be priced around Rs30,000 in India.

Tags: Mobile India, Mobile Gaming, GPS Gaming, GPS Devices

Published on Wednesday, December 06, 2006 at 4:23 AM 2 comments

Friday, December 01, 2006

Broadband and Internet Subscriber Statistics

Last month, IAMAI released a report on how the Indian consumer is using the Internet and Broadband. Here is another study by TRAI [PDF] which reveals the latest statistics of the state or Internet and Broadband in India at the end of June-06.

India has 7.7 Million internet subscribers.
20% of internet subscribers have broadband [atleast 256KBPs connection] i.e 1.5 Million broadband subscribers
The annual growth rate of Internet subscribers is 25%.
Between 2005 and 2006, Broadband subscribers growth was 637%. Reliance Broadband doesn't want to aggressively expand in the consumer broadband space, while our IT minister has promised major milestones in 2007 in the broadband space.
Under unlimited broadband plans in India, BSNL is the cheapest and MTNL is the most expensive.
Top 5 ISPS account have a combined market share of 86% with BSNL having a whopping 43%, followed by MTNL 19%, Sify 12%, VSNL 6% and Bharti Tele-ventures Ltd 6%.