Report: 49 per cent Indians browse the Internet on their phones

Surprised? In a country that is among the lowest in broadband penetration, a large chunk of internet consumption is through mobile devices.

The data, published by Device Research for Opera, also says not all the traffic is from the metros. The share of mobile Internet users is linked to mobile operators active in the country and the services they offer.

India is second to South Africa, which has 57% of mobile consumption. In third place is Indonesia with 44% traffic.



More numbers: 94% of the population that uses the Internet on mobile devices is between the age group of 13 to 34. Blame it on the mobile revolution that has taken Indian youth by storm. A surprise factor in this research is that 95% of this population is male.



Despite losing market share to competitors, Nokia still seems to be the prominent and dominating player in the Indian market for mobile Internet browsing devices.

Despite the late entry of 3G in the Indian market, 60% of the consumer downloads on mobile devices include music and videos. Around 50% of the usage includes social networking and email on the mobile devices.

But it all boils down to the most important question of them all: how much is a consumer willing to pay to access the Internet on his mobile device?  A generous 58% believe that Rs. 50 per month is a fair pricing point to access Internet on the go.