Data connectivity environment is still poor in India: True Balance

56 percent of smartphone users have been found to be offline, without access to the internet, at least once a day, while 11 percent stay offline for more than 24 hours, according to the new report by True Balance, a provider of mobile balance management app.

The report from the app developers notes that mobile data usage in India has quadrupled in 8 months due to competitive and unlimited data tariff plans being offered by various telecom operators such as Jio, Airtel, and Vodafone over the past few months. .

While the usagae seems to have gone up, the report also states that the data connectivity environment is still poor leading to devices being exposed to an offline environment on large.

Speaking of the results of new data analysis report, Alex Suh, General Director of Data Analysis, True Balance, said, "We have found that across India, the connections are patchy and users often find gaps in network coverage depending on their location. This is why despite the mobile data usage in the country increased significantly, there is still the prevalence of users found experiencing the offline state in a day. While the data connectivity issue has improved considerably since last year, there is still scope to address the main issues behind poor connectivity and get these numbers further down."

Despite these connectivity hiccups, the report goes on to reveal that the percentage of mobile devices with 24-hour data usage has been increasing steadily since last year. True Balance has pointed out that, users who used the mobile data online for 24-hours were just 7 percent in July 2016. That number has increased to 44 percent as of April 2017.

And the numbers should increase more in the near future, The advent of low-priced handsets and tablets compatible to access the Internet has and is contributing to a significant increase in online mobile data subscribers. Services such as e-mails, social networking, online shopping and use of different search engines have also been and currently are the key drivers of internet consumption in India.