Given various facets of India’s demographics including a predominantly young population, a growing middle class and rising disposable incomes, especially among the young, the emergence of India as the country with the second largest base of internet users is not surprising. Availability of low-cost mobile devices and small denomination pre-paid data plans has also enabled an increasing number of Indians to access the internet. India has about 462 million internet users currently and software industry body Nasscom and content delivery network services company Akamai Technologies in a recent report estimate that this number will jump to 730 million by 2020. Much of that growth will come from the hinterland — about 75 per cent, according to the same report. E-commerce is expected to be a big driver of data consumption over the next few years. India’s internet user-base has grown despite spectrum scarcity, poor network speed and patchy connectivity. But data consumption has also been limited by these factors, as well as by limited content availability in local languages. The average speed of internet connections in the US is 26.1 Mbps according to Cisco Visual Networking Index forecast. The comparable number for India is 5.1 Mbps, forecast to rise to 12.9 Mpbs in 2020.

The Centre and the telecom industry need to urgently address infrastructure bottlenecks to improve quality of internet access, which will automatically drive up consumption. While the Centre needs to make more spectrum available, industry needs to plan more efficient use of the available spectrum and fix connectivity issues. Both, government and industry also need to make available content suited for consumers of different socio-economic groups and in the language they understand. Tailored content is needed for governments and industry to achieve their individual objectives. Content in local languages is essential for the growth of e-governance as well as government-to-citizen engagement.

Spectrum shortage is expected to be addressed after the next round of auctions later this year. However, the cost of spectrum remains an issue. Auctions have brought in transparency, but driven up costs. Unaffordable spectrum does not help consumers in the long run, and even the Government will ultimately lose out. On the other hand, selling radio waves at more affordable rates can actually benefit all stakeholders — the Government, service providers and consumers — in the long run. Increased consumption of data will also mean increase in economic activity and creation of new jobs, all of which can fetch the Government more tax revenues on a sustained basis.

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