India to have 155M mobile Web users by March

By March, 155 million Indians are expected to access the Web via their mobile devices, up from 130 million in December 2013.  

According to the latest stats from the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI), this number is expected to hit 185 million by June, growing 20 percent quarter-on-quarter.

The majority of this user base will reside in urban India, where 126 million in March 2014 will access the Internet via their mobile devices. This will grow to 153 million by June, which will see 32 million rural Indians surfing the Web via their mobiles.

According to the IAMAI report, the average revenue per user (ARPU) for 2013 dipped to 387 rupees (US$6.28) from 460 rupees (US$7.47) in 2012. Good news is, more Indians were spending on mobile Internet, which accounted for 45 percent of overall ARPU in 2013, compared to 43 percent the year before.

In addition, 35 percent of mobile Web users spent between 100 rupees (US$1.62) and 500 rupees (US$8.12) on their monthly phone expenses. Some 9 percent were expected to spend over 500 rupees each month, while 6 percent spent less than 100 rupees, IAMAI noted.