Internet subscribers in India increased to 11.2 lakh during 2000-01 from 6.51 lakh the previous year, with the home segment registering a whopping compounded annual growth rate of 215 per cent, according to Mait-IMRB study.

Defining Internet subscribers as entities which had access to the Net, the study said that overall subscriber base could be lower than the actual users and connections sold during the year.

A further break-up of Net connections in the business segment revealed that domestic private companies notched a 93 per cent share, MNCs one per cent and the government sector about six per cent.

The study divides the Net users into two categories; home and business. The business segment accounted for 45 per cent, while households accounted for the balance 55 per cent. The study said that Net penetration in the business segment was pegged at 36 per cent in 2000-01, with homes seeing a nine per cent penetration.

“The number of Internet subscribers increased to 1.12 million (11.2 lakh) by March 2001, leading to 67 per cent penetration among PC owning businesses and 54 per cent penetration in PC owning homes,” the survey said.

In terms of mode of Net access, 72 per cent of subscribers were using dial-up as on March 2001, while cable and DST currently accounts for two and one per cent as access means.

“Cable looks like an alternate Internet access method which will gain considerable market share. But the high cost of technology has slowed down its growth,” said Bhupendra Mathur, IMRB Vice-President.

The dial-up access is followed by leased line (12 per cent) and ISDN (10 per cent).