CISCO claims that India would have 348 million net users by 2017

8220;In India,there will be 348 million Internet users in 2017,up from 138 million in 2012,8221; the VNI forecast said.

Globally,by 2017,Internet users will swell to 3.6 billion,which will be more than 48 per cent of the world8217;s projected population of 7.6 billion. In 2012,worldwide Internet users stood at 2.3 billion against a population of 7.2 billion,it added.

8220;The good news is that Internet traffic growth in India is the fastest globally,8221; Cisco VP Global Technology Policy Robert Pepper said here.

While there is a great willingness on the part of the government and the industry to drive broadband penetration and ensure Internet access,but still there is a lot to be done. As people,devices and data get connected,the possibilities it opens are immense,he added.

On Internet traffic in India,VNI said,IP Internet Protocol traffic will grow 6-fold from 2012 to 2017 in India,a compound annual growth rate of 44 per cent.

8220;In India,IP traffic will reach 2.8 exabytes per month in 2017,up from 454 petabytes per month in 2012,8221; it added.

Internet video users will skyrocket to 113 million excluding mobile-only in 2017 from 16 million in 2012,the index said.

8220;In 2012,in India,non-PC accounted for 10 per cent of the IP traffic,but by 2017,the non-PC share will grow to 53 per cent,8221; it added.

Portable devices like smartphones and tablets will contribute 40 per cent to IP traffic in 2017 from 3 per cent in 2012. TV8217;s share will be 10 per cent and machine-to-machine M2M modules will contribute 3 per cent,it added.

The report expects mobile Internet traffic to record a healthy growth by 2017. 8220;Indian mobile data traffic will grow 4 times faster than Indian fixed IP traffic from 2012 to 2017. Mobile was 3 per cent of total IP traffic in 2012,and will be 32 per cent of

total IP traffic in 2017,8221; it added.

There will be 2 billion networked devices in 2017 in India,up from 1 billion in 2012,Cisco8217;s VNI said.