A recent report on ‘Internet in Rural India’ by IAMAI and IMRB, shows that Rural India is getting fast on the information super highway. The number of claimed internet users in rural India is expected to reach 45 million by December 2012.

The report further reveals that Rural India has 38 million claimed internet users and 31 million active internet users. Growing at a CAGR of 73 %, the penetration of claimed internet users in rural India has grown from 2.6 % in 2010 to 4.6 % in 2012.On the other hand, the penetration of active internet users has grown from 2.13 % in 2010 to 3.7% in 2012. 

Subho Ray, President of IAMAI said in a statement, “This is just the tip of the iceberg, in the next two years, a combination of affordable smart phones, optic fiber backbone and local language content is likely to change the beat all projections of internet growth in rural areas.”

According to the report, mobile phones are fast emerging as an important point of internet access in rural India. The number of claimed internet users in rural India is expected to reach 45 million by December 2012.Till end June 2012, there were 3.6 million mobile internet users in India, a growth of 7.2 times from 0.5 million in 2010.

Due to less penetration of smartphones in the rural areas, 57.7% of the internet users accessed internet through Community Service Centres (CSC) and cyber cafes, while only 12% of the internet users access internet on their mobile phones.

Almost 75% of rural users use internet for entertainment while 56% use it for communications. Users like to access music, videos and photos for entertainment. Apart from this, around 81 % of claimed internet users seek information pertaining to school / university and exam centres.