If we rewind back to '70s and '80s, Indian executives were hardly found into business-related travel because of several factors. But by the time we entered into '90s and especially the twenty-first century, intensive business travels became the norm of the day and with advent of technology, this trend is on continuous rise.
Indians are on the move literally and metaphorically as well and the desire of being connected all the time can be seen in all the strata of the society. Even from just business point of view, business travelers always need to be connected in view of importance of communication in the new age. To fulfill this need, we have options of USB modems and data cards. Data cards are no more a new thing; in fact it is the most preferred solution for business needs. Statistically, India has total 11 million USB modems, data cards and internet enabled cell phones out of which approximately 4 million are data cards offered by several companies.
Data cards are available in both laptops and desktop segments. The prime growth stimulants for data cards are factors like, growing businesses across all segments, need to access e-mails for corporate functions, business trips and of course the need to have some personal entertainment. Data card industry is witnessing a robust growth because of reasons including, reducing and affordable tariffs, better download speeds, faster surfing, simple to use sans any technological complications and most importantly convenience of net-surfing while on the move. The data card offers customers ‘plug and play’ option which makes it very easy to use even for new computer literates.
Various organizations have collaborated with good number of data card service providers in order to have bulk connections for their employees on the move so that they can make full advantage of time spent during business travels. As this segment is rapidly growing, the chances of its affordability have also increased greatly which ulitamtely will lead to more growth. Other technological innovation like mobile telephony has also acted as a growth driver for this segment.