‘Nearly 60 p.c. of users in non-metros don’t access internet on phone’

Nearly 60 per cent of those who have internet-enabled mobile phones do not use the gadget to go online, said Apoorva Mehta, Business Head – Karnataka, Vodafone India. He was speaking at a press meet in the city on Thursday. The number applies to mobile phone users across States in India (except metros). Of those who do use the internet on their mobile phones, 90 to 95 per cent use 2G and the rest use 3G.

He said that overall the internet penetration in India is low while mobile penetration is high. While Karnataka is a very data-savvy market, a very large customer base is yet to use data on the Net. They use the mobile phone for voice, and at best for SMS.

Mr. Mehta, who was here to announce a new scheme to attract mobile phone users to the Net, said the company’s call centre will guide its customers how to use the Net on the mobile phone. They may not be familiar with instructions such as “configure settings”. They will be told of how to use Google and download music on to their phones.