8216;India to have 185 mn mobile Internet users by June 20148217;

The number of mobile Internet users in India seems all set for explosive growth with a report by Internet amp; Mobile Association Of India IAMAI and IMRB International predicting that there will be 155 million people accessing the web through their phones by March-end 2014.

With a quarter-over-quarter growth of 20 per cent,this number is expected to cross 185 million by June 2014,says the Mobile Internet In India 2013 report. According to the report,in October 2013,India had 110 million mobile internet users,with just 25 million in rural India. The report says across both urban and rural India over half the Internet users where accessing the Web on a mobile phone.

One of the reasons for the increase in mobile Internet penetration is the fall in average cost per user,which dropped to Rs 387 from Rs 460 in 2012,even though the actual per cent of data costs in phone bills has gone up from 43 to 45 per cent over the past year. The falling costs of smartphones has also contributed to the increase in people having access to the Internet on mobile.