Reliance Communications (RCOM) has reported 28.6 million mobile Internet connections for the quarter ended June 30, 2014 (Q1-FY15), following a reclassification of a Mobile Internet user as one that has used at least 1 MB over GPRS/3G during the period. This follows a similar move by Airtel last month and Idea Cellular last quarter. The telco's mobile data connection base grew by 7.1% quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) from 26.7 million (reclassified) connections in the previous quarter. Prior to the reclassification, RCOM had reported 37.4 million data connections in the previous quarter, which means that as many as 10.7 million mobile Internet connections in the previous quarter had used less than 1 MB. 3G Connections Following this reclassification, RCOM's 3G connection base was at 13 million for the quarter, up 8.33% QoQ from 12 million 3G connections (reclassified) in the previous quarter. Note that RCOM had reported 12.9 million 3G connections in previous quarter, which means that around 0.9 million 3G connections in the previous quarter had used less than 1 MB. The company claims to have largest 3G connection base in the industry, however we’re not sure whether RCOM classifies its EVDO data card users as 3G users or merely “data users”. In comparison, Airtel had reported 12.53 million 3G connections during the quarter, while Vodafone reported 10 million 3G connections and Idea Cellular reported 10.6 million 3G connections during the quarter. RCOM notes that it currently offer 3G services in all 13 circles where it has 3G spectrum. It also recently launched 3G services in five additional circles including Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Uttar…
