India has 55.48 crore mobile owners, 14.32 crore Internet users

New Delhi: There are 55.48 crore actual mobile users in the country and 14.32 crore internet users, according to a study by research firm Juxt.

"India has 55.48 crore mobile users as per our India Mobile Landscape (IML) 2013 study. More than 29.8 crore, about 54 per cent, of these device owners are in rural areas as compared to 25.6 crore in cities and towns," Juxt co-founder Mrutyunjay told PTI.

There are total 77.39 crore functional SIMs with validity but only 64.34 SIMs are being used by 55.48 crore mobile devices owners, the study report said.

IML study finds that there are 14.32 crore internet users in the country.

"The number of unique Internet users in India, who access Internet from their desktop or laptop, smart TV or mobile data connections together stand at around 94.7 million. But when one adds the number of users who also access Internet through operators portals such as Airtel Live and Reliance R World, the number goes up to 143.2 million," Mrutyunjay said.

The study found 2.38 crore individuals access Internet from their mobile phones using a data connection such as GPRS or 3G. Out of this, 93 lakh access Internet only through mobile phones and around 77 per cent of these users are in rural areas.

Talking about size of survey, he said that the field survey was conducted between May and mid-July 2013 covering 109 urban centres and 196 villages in all the 28 states and 3 union territories in India.

"It (survey) covered 80 of the 88 regions as classified by the National Sample Survey Organisation under the Ministry of Statistics and Program Implementation. The study sample represents 94.8 per cent of the Indian population and 96.1 per cent of the total Indian households," he said.

Meanwhile, as per the data revealed by sectoral regulator TRAI, there are total 87.33 crore mobile subscribers in the country. Of this, 73.14 crore customers were found to be active on a particular date in June.

The cumulative revenue of telecom service providers was Rs 54,284 crore in the January-March quarter as per TRAI data.