Internet in India

The history of the Internet in India started with launch of services by VSNL on 15 August 1995. They were able to add about 10,000 Internet users within 6 months. However, for the next 10 years the Internet experience in the country remained less attractive with narrow-band connections having speeds less than 56 kbit/s (dial-up). In 2004, the government formulated its broadband policy which defined broadband as "an always-on Internet connection with download speed of 256 kbit/s or above." From 2005 onward the growth of the broadband sector in the country accelerated, but remained below the growth estimates of the government and related agencies due to resource issues in last-mile access which were predominantly wired-line technologies. This bottleneck was removed in 2010 when the government auctioned 3G spectrum followed by an equally high profile auction of 4G spectrum that set the scene for a competitive and invigorated wireless broadband market. Now Internet access in India is provided by both public and private companies using a variety of technologies and media including dial-up (PSTN), xDSL, coaxial cable, Ethernet, FTTH, ISDN, HSDPA (3G), WiFi, WiMAX, etc. at a wide range of speeds and costs. As per IAMAI India will have the world's second largest number of Internet users with over 300 million by December 2014.

See also: Internet censorship in India, List of countries by number of Internet users, List of countries by number of broadband Internet subscriptions, and List of countries by Internet connection speeds

Statistic	Figures
Total subscribers	342.65 million
Narrowband subscribers	192.90 million
Broadband subscribers	149.75 million
Wired subscribers	20.44 million
Wireless subscribers	322.21 million
Urban subscribers	230.71 million
Rural subscribers	111.94 million
Overall net penetration	26.98 %
Urban net penetration	58.28 %
Rural net penetration	12.80 %

According to the Internet And Mobile Association of India (IAMAI), the Internet user base in the country stood at 190 million at the end of June, 2013. As of October, 2013 report, it is over 205 million. The number of broadband subscribers at the end of May 2013 was 15.19 million. Cumulative Annual Growth rate (CAGR) of broadband during the five-year period between 2005 and 2010 was about 117 per cent. DSL, while holding slightly more than 75% of the local broadband market, was steadily losing market share to other non-DSL broadband platforms, especially to wireless broadband.

There were 161 Internet Service Providers (ISPs) offering broadband services in India as of 31 May 2013. The top five ISPs in terms subscriber base were BSNL (9.96 million), Bharti Airtel (1.40 million), MTNL (1.09 million), Hathway (0.36 million) and You Broadband (0.31 million). Cyber cafes remain the major source of Internet access. In 2009, about 37 per cent of the users access the Internet from cyber cafes, 30 per cent from an office, and 23 per cent from home. However, the number of mobile Internet users increased rapidly from 2009 on and there were about 274 million mobile users at the end of September 2010, with a majority using 2G mobile networks. Mobile Internet subscriptions as reported by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) in March 2011 increased to 381 million.

One of the major issues facing the Internet segment in India is the lower average bandwidth of broadband connections compared to that of developed countries. According to 2007 statistics, the average download speed in India hovered at about 40 KB per second (256 kbit/s), the minimum speed set by TRAI, whereas the international average was 5.6 Mbit/s during the same period. In order to attend this infrastructure issue the government declared 2007 as "the year of broadband". To compete with international standards of defining broadband speed the Indian Government has taken the aggressive step of proposing a $13 billion national broadband network to connect all cities, towns and villages with a population of more than 500 in two phases targeted for completion by 2012 and 2013. The network was supposed to provide speeds up to 10 Mbit/s in 63 metropolitan areas and 4 Mbit/s in an additional 352 cities. Also, the Internet penetration rate in India is one of the lowest in the world and only accounts for 8.4% of the population compared to the rate in OECD counties, where the average is over 50%. Another issue is the digital divide where growth is biased in favour of urban areas; according to 2010 statistics, more than 75 per cent of the broadband connections in the country are in the top 30 cities. Regulators have tried to boost the growth of broadband in rural areas by promoting higher investment in rural infrastructure and establishing subsidised tariffs for rural subscribers under the Universal service obligation scheme of the Indian government.

As of May 2014, the Internet was delivered to India mainly by 9 different undersea fibres, including SEA-ME-WE 3, Bay of Bengal Gateway and Europe India Gateway, arriving at 5 different landing points.

Ecommerce Industry in India statistics

No. of Indian consumers who purchased something online in 2014: 40 Million

No. of Indian consumers who are expected to purchase something online in 2015: 65 Million

Indian ecommerce Industry in 2014: $22 Billion

Indian ecommerce Industry in 2018: $86 Billion

Mobile Internet Users

No. of Internet users in India in 2016: 300 Million

Mobile Internet users in India now: 203 Million

Ecommerce sales through mobile phone in India in 2014: 41%

Wireless Internet

2nd Generation Internet is the most prevalent in India in the Past Decade. Wireless ISPs in India use both CDMA and Edge technologies for 2G.

India's wireless Internet frequencies are:

• 2G : GSM 900 MHz, GSM 1800 MHz
• 3G : UMTS 2100 MHz
• 4G : TD-LTE 2300 MHz, FD-LTE 1800 MHz, FDD-LTE 850 MHz
• CDMA : 800 MHz (for 1x voice and data & EVDO Rev A, Rev B, Rev B Phase II data)

Data centres

• BSNL Internet Data Centers, in collaboration with Dimension Data
• Trimax IT Infrastructure & Services Limited - Tier III data centers in Mumbai and Bengaluru
• Airlive Broadband
• Sify Technologies Limited
• CtrlS Datacenters Ltd
• Tata Communications Limited
• Netmagic Solutions
• Reliance Datacenter
• Web Werks IDC
• Net4 Datacenter
• RackBank Datacenter
• GPX Global Systems Inc.
• CTRLS Data Center
• MegaHostZone
• Digital Ocean

Internet Exchanges

• NIXI
• Mumbai Convergence Hub

Net neutrality

Main article: Net neutrality in India

As of 2015, India had no laws governing net neutrality and there have been violations of net neutrality principles by some service providers. While the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) guidelines for the Unified Access Service license promote net neutrality, they are not enforced. The Information Technology Act, 2000 does not prohibit companies from throttling their service in accordance with their business interests.

In March 2015, the TRAI released a formal consultation paper on Regulatory Framework for Over-the-top (OTT) services, seeking comments from the public. The consultation paper was criticised for being one sided and having confusing statements. It was condemned by various politicians and internet users. By 18 April 2015, over 800,000 emails had been sent to TRAI demanding net neutrality.