Telecom in India
A decade after Jio's launch, Indian telecom runs on cheap, heavy data: monthly use per subscriber rose from under 0.2 GB to about 21.5 GB as the price of 1 GB fell about 96%. With subscriber growth maturing and operator spending flat, the next phase depends on monetising 5G, fixed wireless access and AI-run networks.
By Faisal Kawoosa, Chief Analyst and Co-founder · Read the full analysis
Latest on Telecom Market
October 2026
19 ViewpointNew Ericsson Q3 2026: What It Signals for Telecom and for India 10 ViewpointNew From Demos to Democratisation – India Mobile Congress 2026 TakeawaySeptember 2026
07 InsightsPro Jio at 10 – A disruption in India TelecomMay 2026
15 InsightsPro 10 Moments That Broke, Built, and Rebuilt Indian Telecom — Techarc India Telecom DashboardMarch 2026
19 InsightsPro 5 Key Trends to determine our future in an intelligent living era – Techarc MWC Barcelona 2026 takeaways 12 InsightsPro Mobile World Congress – MWC 2026 Analyst DiaryOctober 2025
30 InsightsPro 5G FWA is India’s fastest growing broadband service by subscriber addition 09 InsightsPro Internet subscribers in India cross 1 billion milestoneOctober 2024
19 Viewpoint IMC Aspire – India’s nursery of ideas, imagination and implementations in emerging technologiesApril 2024
23 Viewpoint Expect business as usual till 2026-27 for telecommunications in IndiaMarch 2024
19 Viewpoint With Gen Alpha entering teenage in 2024, we could finally see post-paid subscriptions for mobile services going up in IndiaFebruary 2024
29 Viewpoint MWC 2024 – The era of luxurious techState of the market
Jio's 2016 launch reshaped every metric in Indian telecom. Data use is up roughly 100 times, 1 GB now costs about ₹9 against ₹228 in 2016, and 4G and 5G subscribers have grown from under 10 million to about 938 million. India is now the only country after China with more than a billion internet subscribers.
Industry revenue took a V-shaped path: quarterly gross revenue fell about 26%, from ₹73,344 crore before Jio to ₹54,218 crore during the tariff war, before recovering to ₹96,390 crore. Growth now comes from new services rather than new users. 5G FWA is the fastest-growing broadband service by subscriber addition, while vendor results such as Ericsson's Q3 2026 point to a flat network-equipment market and rising AI component costs. At IMC 2026, the focus moved to networks that use AI to plan, run and secure themselves.
Questions people ask
How did Jio change Indian telecom?
It made mobile data cheap and universal. The price of 1 GB fell about 96% since 2016, and average use rose from under 0.2 GB to about 21.5 GB a month.
How many 5G FWA subscribers does India have?
9.4 million as of September 2025, about 0.94% of all broadband subscribers. Techarc estimated the base would cross 11 million by December 2025.
Is telecom network spending growing?
Not much. Ericsson's Q3 2026 results point to a flat radio-network market, with growth coming from share gains and efficiency rather than new operator spending.