Shangliao Sun
Research expert covering India
Telecommunications industry in India - statistics & facts
The telecommunications industry in India started when the telegraph was introduced around the middle of the 19th century. It has come a long way since then. Mobile telephone services and the Internet were introduced in India in 1995. More than two decades later, the country’s mobile network has become the second largest in the world, trailing just behind China.
Telecommunications providers in India
Over the past three decades, India has witnessed rapid development in the telecom sector, especially in the mobile communications segment. This progress can be attributed, in part, to the liberalization of the market. Nowadays, mobile phones are more common than landlines among the population. The wireless market is dominated by private companies, including Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel, and Vodafone Idea, and the competition for market leadership is intense. In the financial year 2024, Reliance Jio achieved a revenue of more than 1.3 trillion rupees, making it the largest company in India’s telecom industry.Reliance Jio
Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited, popularly known as Jio, was launched to the public in December 2016, directly with 4G services. It has a market share of wireless subscribers at around 40 percent. It achieved market dominance in record time by offering extensive coverage, free voice calls and affordable data plans. And it was one of the first to introduce 5G services to its customers in the country, at the end of 2022. As of financial year 2024, Jio was providing services to more than 480 million wireless subscribers in the country.Trend - 5G network
Since October 2022, India has been gradually rolling out 5G services. The service was first launched in major metropolitan cities, such as Delhi, Mumbai, and Kolkata, with Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio being the first providers to offer 5G services to their customers. As of early 2023, the average 5G download speed in the country was approximately 25 times faster than 4G. According to the government, India is expected to achieve 100 percent 5G coverage by the end of December 2024. Furthermore, it was estimated that 5G would account for nearly 66 percent of mobile subscriptions by 2029.
