A study (pdf) by Nielsen India suggests that 71 million subscribers use Multiple SIM cards across India: and that there are only 13% (9.23 million) multi-SIM users that have made a call/recharged their number in last 90 days. This has been estimated from surveying nearly 20,000 mobile users in the 18-55 age group across 18 Indian cities, across population strata. (hat tip Pluggd.in) Notes from the report - Handset Marketshare: As per the report, among 14% of Multi-SIM card users who plan to buy a new handset, 75% intend to choose a dual SIM card handset. Nokia, the Finnish handset maker, is leading the multi-SIM handset market with 30% of total multi-SIM handset market share closely followed by Samsung with 16% market share. Micromax, a local player, shares 12% of the market share. - 31% of subscribers decided to go for multi-SIM for better data/plans/offers while only 8% chose it for privacy reasons. 10% chose it to stay connected all the time and 8% to ensure they received network all the time. - The report also states that for every 2 out of 5 multi-SIM users (40%), expenses have remained consistent and only 12% users have reported a substantial rise in costs. Users prefer to keep both SIM cards as prepaid to have a better control on costs as well as to capitalize on monthly deals offered by operators. - 42% of working professionals, and 24% of students prefer to opt for multi-SIM followed by housewives (14%) and businessmen(8%). - It's interesting to note that multi-SIM…
