Mumbai Tops in India Internet Users, But Rural on the Rise [REPORT]

Internet users: claimed vs active

A new report from the IMRB and IAMAI on the Internet in India concludes that Mumbai is the nation’s top Internet-using city. According to the report, the metropolis has 8.1 million ‘claimed’ users and 6.2 million ‘active’ internet users.

Following Mumbai is Delhi and the NCR with 6.2 and 5.0 million claimed and active users respectively. Surprisingly Bangalore, the nation’s tech capital, is way down the rankings in sixth spot, behind Kolkatta, Chennai, and Hyderabad (see chart, right).

One of the main conclusions of their survey was that towns with less that 200,000 (2 lakh) ‘collectively returned a higher number of internet users than the top four metros put together.’

IAMAI’s president Dr. Subho Ray elaborated on the report:

[T]wo things are absolutely clear from the survey. First, the internet density is very poor in top metros in spite of awareness, education and infrastructure… Secondly, internet is now clearly and firmly a small town phenomenon.

In our opinion this conclusion could lead to misunderstandings about the development of India’s rural internet. It should be pointed out that while the number of Internet users in rural areas are indeed booming, that the quality of the nation’s connections remains among the worst in the world. Akamai’s State of the Internet report asserted that 35 percent of India’s connections are under 256 KBps (see below). Recent figures from Pando Networks rank India at 108th in the world with an average connection speed of 184KBps.