The study, “Creating the Next MultiBillion Dollar Online Opportunities in Telecoms”, was released yesterday and said that telcos in India could generate an operating profit of $3 billion over the next three years if they invest in data services.
India’s mobile internet base stands at approximately 155 million people and the survey expects this to more than double by 2017.
“It is estimated that in three years, smartphone penetration will grow six times to reach 385 million people and the number of users who transact online will grow to 160 million,” the report said.
Nikolai Dobberstein, from AT Kearney and one of the authors of the survey, said that Indian telcos are well poised to jump directly into digital play because the shift from data to digital is set to happen much faster in India than the rest of the world.
“Within three years, Indian telcos revenue is expected to reach $35 billion, with data revenues growing at over 70% annually till then, and new digital VAS streams emerging and growing exponentially,” Dobberstein said.
Rajan Anandan, Google India VP and MD for sales and operations, added that India telcos have a great opportunity to “proactively create tremendous value by driving a digital strategy aligned with consumer needs”.
In March 2013, Nokia Networks released an Indian mobile performance report revealing a near double increase in data traffic in the country.
