Will Mobile Internet users surpass the number of traditional Internet users in India?

The rate at which mobile penetration has increased in India - is enough proof of the fact that these devices have emerged as the best and cost-effective way to connect the entire nation. with Internet available on cheaper phones & the mobile price wars further driving the data costs down -the number of mobile Internet users will definitely surpass the traditional users in India

To some extent i support sonal singhs argument..but it depends on how the mobile operators will give services to the customers.Now days business has become so competetive that no body is leaving not even one single chance .

More over in small towns and villages we cant get internet cafes to access internet in those places these types of mobile internet will be usefull & normally customers will be prefering these types of mode.

Yes they will pass the traditional Internet user. These days the trend is for 24 hour Internet connectivity with a Laptop and a USB drive in India this Broadband is being provided by :

1. Reliance Netcommect

2. Tata Photon

Download speed promise is from 2-3 mbps . This is very good for India though at International level the average is around 10 mbps with peak speed going upto 20 mbps.

Hence with this facility you are Internet connected 24 hours a day.And with this sort of speed if available at reasonable rates then you donot even need a TV or a Mobile phone , the Laptop does the job for you.

Well who imagined about 10 years back that mobile users will explode to 10 times & still growing, the landline users. Actually what you are witnessing is the "Facilities (Tech) on the Go", who wants to be stagnant & not be involved with multi-tasking?

There may be existing a pretty supportive environment in India for the mobile broadband segment to develop robustly. To support this view I would like to highlight a few points starting from; the enhancement of the CDMA mobile broadband technology by the major players (Reliance and Tata). If a mobile broadband customer of any of these mobile operators had to be content with a paltry 56Kbps or below during the initial times, with the lately effected technological augmentation, the customer has been comfortably placed at a better position of enjoying a download speed of around 3Mbps with the same CDMA. You might add to it a 'plus' or 'minus'. 

However, this has not anywhere tended to stall the regulation base service of 56Kbps, which is not bad at all to be relied upon for a customer to browse the web or send and receive emails, even though it can never be of any sort of support for the businesses in the country. The pricing for this service is also almost par with that of the fixed-line broadband base deals.

Another significant aspect to be noted here is the advent of the 3G mobile service. Such a service could simply bring all the scopes of an ADSL service fed desktop PC into a laptop or netbook that offers the customer the exciting world of mobility, provided adequate coverage spots. Here, the argument that the consumers at the rural areas could be deprived of the comfort do not seem sensible, for at this point of time at least one cannot think that increased data download is supposed to happen at the countrysides.

Besides, no sane person would also expect India to officially follow a universal Indian broadband network that talks about a fixed-line or mobile broadband connection to every household in the country. On the other hand, if one cannot think about a super-fast next generation fibre optic revolution replacing the stodgy copper ADSL networks in India, at least within the next five years, one can expect with gusto, the rollout of a new mobile broadband technological advancement called LTE (Long Term Evolution) that delivers speeds of up to 100Mbps theoretically, within the same term at least at a selected number of locations.

Whatsoever, the problems that the industry as well as the customers of this standard (mobile broadband) in the country would be heading for, can be well the attitude of the mobile networks. All the more for the reason that this is one segment where a fair policy will not work out, either regarding the speeds or the coverage. A customer who falls for the advertisement might also experience betrayal at the hand of the service provider.

This can be, to a large extent, tackled once the market perpetuates healthy competition, marked by some deeply significant as well as meaningful offers for switching service providers. The government has also a great part to play here. Nevertheless, this can only be realised if TRAI acts like a true watchdog and BSNL (although being a non-public enterprise today), a poor man's service provider. And the anticipated glory definitely cannot be achieved with some ministers toiling there to appropriate to their own interests 4 crores a day, should I say, illegally?

I too believe Mobile Internet users will increase in a country like India. Its because of the following reasons  

1. The cost of mobile handsets is becoming very cheap and affordable to most of the public. And all these phones will have internet facility available in them. 

2. With wireless technology you only need to setup a cell phone towers, you needn't draw lines to each and every home. So smaller townships and villages can easily be provided with internet access using wireless technology than with a wired connection. 

3. The devices themselves are becoming more equipped with technologies which support internet like Flash player. Java. And browsers such as Opera Mini make surfing in small screen a reality.