88% Indian consumers find mobile broadband too expensive; 10% understand data plan: Study

NEW DELHI: About 88 percent of Indian consumers feel that mobile broadband on 2G is too expensive and only 10 percent of mobile internet users understand their data plan perfectly, a study said.

The report said that while decrease in smartphone prices fuelled the adoption of mobile internet within the lower socio-economic segment, from 38 percent in 2013 to 45 percent in 2015, but mobile internet usage is expected to grow with the consumers’ better understanding of the data plans on offer and personalization of offers as per consumer behavior and requirements.

However, connection quality and reliability still remain a problem, with 63 percent of users facing quality and reliability issues, such as lost connections and inconsistent network speeds, when using mobile networks indoors.

App-related issues while outdoors or commuting, lengthy lag times, apps taking a long time to refresh, maps failing to load, and session failures affect 68 percent of consumers.

The Ericsson ConsumerLab today released the report titled ‘The Changing Mobile Broadband Landscape’, which

highlighted the evolving mobile broadband adoption and usage in urban India.

Though three in five smartphone users use mobile broadband in urban India, 53 percent feel that mobile broadband adds no value and as many as 48 percent believe that there is no difference between 2G and 3G speeds.

It also said that about 70 percent of mobile broadband smartphone users regularly stream videos on their smartphones, and 61 percent use social networking. Indian smartphone users are also seeing greater potential in mobile broadband when it comes to facilitating the way they handle their money and personal finances, with 58 percent stating that they would begin to do so in the next six months, while 52 percent will use the internet to pay bill online.

Services like location navigation while travelling and cloud storage are also seeing an upswing in usage.

Mid-size and small cities are showing higher smartphone penetration levels at 33 percent, as opposed to the smartphone penetration levels of 27 percent in big non-metros and large cities.

At the same time, the proportion of smartphone users above the age of 50 has quadrupled, from one percent in 2013 to four percent in 2015.

Ajay Gupta, Vice-President and Head of Strategy and Marketing, Ericsson India, said: “The internet is finally coming of age and is empowering cross sections of Indian society. Though the most used smartphone services in India are for social networking and instant messaging, the usage of banking, e-commerce, navigation and cloud storage apps and services is increasing. It is for this reason we are seeing uptake and digital transformation of many industries like retail, transportation, and banking.”

"When consumers are confident in their understanding of what is offered, they tend to perceive better value from it. In fact, they consume twice as much data compared to users who find it difficult to understand their plan,” added Gupta.

“Understanding the main aspects that are valued by customers can help service providers differentiate their offerings and improve consumer experience which would help increase consumer loyalty. Personalization is being positively viewed and increasingly demanded by consumers,” highlighted Gupta.