Mobile Phone Savvy Indians Outnumber Overall US Population

About half of the country own mobile phones

An Indian man talks on his mobile phone in the pilgrim town of Haridwar in Uttrakhand state of India on 11 October 2012. A recent study by research firm Juxt indicated that about 554 million people in Indian own mobile phones. (VENUS UPADHAYAYA/EPOCH TIMES)

The Indian population using mobile phones outnumbers the overall population of the United States, as one in every two Indians own cell phones. 

According to a study by research firm, Juxt, India has 55.48 crore (554 million) mobile phone owners and 14.32 crore (143 million) internet users. 

“India has 55.48 crore mobile users as per our India Mobile Landscape (IML) 2013 study. More than 29.8 crore, about 54 per cent, of these device owners are in rural areas as compared to 25.6 crore in cities and towns,” Mrutyunjay, Juxt co-founder, told Press Trust of India (PTI). 

This makes India a huge market for telecommunication companies as the number of mobile phone users outnumbers the population of any other country in the world except for China. 

The field survey was conducted between May and mid-July 2013, covering 109 urban centers, 196 villages in all the 28 states, and 3 union territories in India. 

“It (survey) covered 80 of the 88 regions as classified by the National Sample Survey Organisation under the Ministry of Statistics and Program Implementation. The study sample represents 94.8 percent of the Indian population and 96.1 per cent of the total Indian households,” Mrutyunjay said.  

Meanwhile the PTI report also mentioned that as per the data revealed by the Telecom Regulator Authority of India, there are total 87.33 crore mobile subscribers in the country. Of this, 73.14 crore customers were found to be active on a particular date in June.