Bangalore has least number of Net users

Mumbai tops list of internet surfers.

Touted as the Silicon Valley of India, Bangalore, a virtual den of tech geeks, has less number of internet users among the country’s metropolises.

The Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI), in a recent report, ranked the Karnataka capital sixth in terms of internet users, well behind Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata and Hyderabad. The survey was conducted across cities to capture the internet usage pattern.

Mumbai, with 14.3 million users — 8.1 million in the claimed category and 6.2 million active — as of March 2011, topped the list. ‘Claimed users’ are those who said they used internet in some form (say, to check results online). Juxtaposing this stood Bangalore, with 2.2 million claimed users and 1.7 million active users.

Delhi, including the National Capital Region, stood second, with 6.2 million claimed and 5 million active internet users. Kolkata had the third-highest number of internet users, with an user base of 2.4 million.

Despite being on the top of the list, internet density is very poor in the metros. The survey also found towns with less than 200,000 population collectively have a much higher number of internet users than that of the top four metros put together.

“The survey made two things are ‘absolutely clear’, said IAMAI president Subho Roy, “Internet density is poor in metros. Delhi and NCR, for example, have only five million active users when the population base is 20 million. Also, internet is a small-town phenomenon.”