National Association of Software and Service Companies (NASSCOM) has revised its estimates for India's Internet market, pegging the subscriber base at 2.5 million by March 31, 2001 against two million subscribers projected earlier.

The Internet survey, conducted by Nasscom in 68 cities and towns, in India also indicated that the number of Internet subscribers would jump from the current figure of 1.6 million to 50 million by 2008.

"The Internet market is witnessing a tremendous boom in India and the figures are reflective of the same. We expect the internet subscriber base in the country to touch 2.5 million and the user base to grow to 7.5 million by March 2001," Dewang Mehta, president of Nasscom said.

Nasscom had earlier hooked the subscriber base at two million for the period, Mehta said adding that as of August 31, 2000 the subscriber base for Internet in India was 1.6 million, at 4.8 million users.

A majority of the respondents expect the real growth of the Internet in India to take place through cable TV. The number of cable TV subscribers will increase from 37 million as on August 2000 to 70 million in 2008. The survey also indicated that more than 81 percent stand-alone PCs sold during 1999-2000 were driven by the need to access the Internet.

According to the latest Nasscom report on the Internet market, 49 percent of users accessing the Net belonged to the 18 to 24-year-old age group, while 28 percent belonged to 25-39.

Internet surfers above the age of 40 accounted for 11 percent of usage and those below 18 years contributed 12 percent to overall Internet access, he said. The study further said that ratio of males and females accessing the net stood at 77:23 on June 2000, against 82:18 ratios last year.

On employment potential on the Net, the survey said the Internet and e-commerce industry alone had the potential to employ one million people by 2005, against 110,000 people in August this year.

Advertising on the Net is projected to reach the $167 million mark by 2003 as compared to $3.1 million in 1999-2000.

The Nasscom survey further said that India ranked eleventh among the top 20 countries globally in terms of domain name registration and added that regional capital cities in India accounted for 77 percent of Internet connections.

Elaborating on the emergence of mobile phone usage, the survey said that the use of WAP, cheaper access and decreasing cost of handsets was driving the growth of phone usage thus pegging the mobile population at 2.8 million in August this year.