The total internet connections in the country declined to 9.22 million in April-June from 9.27 million in the previous quarter, according to telecom regulator TRAI’s performance indicator report for the quarter.

India is possibly the only country in the world where internet connections are falling. [...]

Even as net connections are falling, the number of people accessing the web on their cellphones increased by a whopping 7 million to cross the 38 million mark. This emphasises how the cellphone is fast becoming the primary medium for Indians to connect to the net as the number of people using their mobile handsets to access the web is now over four times those using a PC.

That means over a fifth of India’s 200 million-plus mobile subscribers use their cellphones to log in to their favourite websites.

Going forward, operators like Bharti Airtel see the mobile phone becoming even more powerful and taking over from the computer in many areas. “Mobile phones will become powerful devices… Phones will have applications that will satiate a large part of human needs which they may need from a computing world,” Bharti Enterprises chairman Sunil Bharti Mittal recently told ET.

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(via dev.mobi)