Reliance Jio becomes primary data connection on mobiles in India

New Delhi: Reliance Jio has become the primary data connection on most of the mobile devices in India, with 42 percent users having activated Jio in their 4G-enabled slot, followed by Airtel at 17.54 percent, Vodafone at 12.26 percent and Idea at 11.50 percent, a consumer mobile analysis app revealed on Wednesday.

Jio is also leading in data consumption as well, with a Jio user logging 6.54GB on average compared to 1.28GB on Airtel, 1.29GB on Vodafone and 1.32GB on Idea.

This is due to "welcome offer" of Jio that offered unlimited data to its subscribers till March 31 this year, said the report from data tracking app Smartapp.

"The recent trend of mobile internet adoption and consumption is probably the harbinger of how `Mobile First` will drive Digital India and bring about true digital inclusivity and access across India," said Gaurav Sarin, Chief Operating Officer, Smartapp, in a statement.

The report found that lowered costs being the driving factor, mobile data consumption in metros has increased by almost 6GB and non-metro by almost 5GB over the last few months.

The use of social networking platforms such as Facebook and video-streaming apps like Youtube are the primary drivers of usage and large-scale adoption of mobile internet across India.

"Social apps have witnessed the highest increase in usage with a massive 467 percent boost while, video streaming apps are second at 336 percent increase. However, the actual data required for video apps is higher," the comapany noted.

Content consumption of news, music and sports has also increased since the launch of Jio," the report added.