Chennai: Backed by increased Internet penetration in rural India, the number of Internet users in the country will reach 627 million by the end of this year, registering an 11 per cent growth over 566 million users in 2018, a report said.
The report titled “ICUBETM 2018” from market research firm Kantar IMRB, said, while Internet users grew by seven per cent in urban India, reaching 315 million users in 2018, rural India registered a 35 per cent growth in users over the past year.
It is now estimated that there are 251 million Internet users in rural India, and this is expected to reach 290 million by the end of 2019.
Accoding to the findings in the report, mobile data rates in India are the cheapest in the world. Bihar registered the highest growth in Internet users across both urban and rural areas, registering a growth of 35 per cent over last year, the report said.