The average monthly data usage per subscriber has seen a manifold growth to 1.6 GB in September 2017 from around 70MB three years ago, helped by strong growth in subscriber base across the country, Parliament was informed today.
There has also been a significant growth in adoption of digital payments and electronic delivery of services, IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said in a written reply to the Lok Sabha.
"(As per Trai), the average data usage per subscriber per month was at 70.10 MB in June 2014. This grew to 1600 MB in September 2017," he said.
The total internet subscriber base also grew from 259.14 million in June 2014 to 429.23 million (including 129.41 million in rural areas) in September 2017, he added.
The total base of wireless subscribers stood at 1.18 billion, while that in rural areas was 498.28 million in September 2017, the Minister said.
"The number of digital payment transactions per month has increased from 60.7 crore in December 2015 to 153 crore in October 2017," he noted.
Prasad said Common Services Centres (CSCs) are taking digital services to every corner of India, especially in rural areas.
As on November 30, 2017, a total of 2,71,311 CSCs were active and transacting for delivery of e-services across the country, among which 1.73 lakh were at Gram Panchayat level. Also, the number of e-transactions as captured on e-Taal (Electronic Transaction Aggregation and Analysis Layer) portal have increased from 241 crore in 2013 to more than 3,013 crore e-transactions in 2017, he added.