After the ban on the use of prepaid Short Message Service (SMS), more users in Jammu and Kashmir are now preferring internet enabled mobile phones as they could now use social networking sites such as Facebook to spread their words, according to a website.
Last year, the state government had banned SMS services on pre-paid connections. Now, only the post-paid users could send SMSes to fellow post-paid numbers.
“After the ban on SMS services, every customer wants to purchase internet enabled mobiles so that they can exchange messages on the move. Therefore the demand for the same is on a rise in the Valley as the internet enabled mobiles are available at very cheap rates now,” the website quoted as saying one Ajaz Ahmed, an executive at a mobile shop in Srinagar.
The website, quoting a report, said that Facebook has witnessed 1686 per cent increase in its share since April 2010, while its competitor, Orkut’s page-view growth since then declined by 0.7 per cent in India. Twitter has also seen and impressive 191 per cent increase in page-view since April last year.
The availability of plethora of internet enabled devices has thus now lured the mobile users in J&K towards social networking sites. Telecom service providers in India, which is one of the most competitive in the world, are also offering lucrative tariff data for internet on mobile.
According to a study by Boston Consulting Group, India will have 237 million internet users by 2015, making it the second largest internet market after China.
The arrival of 3G is expected to fuel the growth of mobile internet users. Currently, telecos like RCom, BSNL, Idea, Aircel are providing third-generation mobile telephony services in the state.