Paying Rs 16 to receive calls to ultra-cheap data: 30 years of India's mobile journey

India Today

01-08-2025

On July 31, 1995, a phone call between Union Telecom Minister Sukh Ram in Delhi and West Bengal Chief Minister Jyoti Basu in Kolkata opened India to mobile telephony. The call was brief and ceremonial, but it marked the beginning of a journey that would redefine how the country lived, worked and connected. Thirty years later, on July 31, 2025, the anniversary of that first call is a reminder of how an elite luxury turned into the backbone of everyday life for more than a billion people.advertisementIndia's mobile networks began with Modi Telstra's GSM service in 1995, limited to Delhi and Kolkata, running on 2G technology with patchy coverage and high tariffs. At the time, both outgoing and incoming calls were charged at Rs 8.40, which even went up to Rs 16 per minute during peak hours.Over time, the sector expanded with Airtel, Hutch, Idea and BSNL building 2G networks nationwide, ushering in mass adoption by the early 2000s.
To mark the 30th anniversary of the first mobile call, Union Minister for Telecommunication, Jyotiraditya Scindia, inaugurated an exhibition on Thursday in Delhi that featured over 300 mobile handsets spanning three decades — from the earliest bulky devices to sleek modern smartphones."From voice to value, India's mobile journey is a global case study. What began with a phone call in 1995 is now powering a trillion-dollar digital economy," BJP MP Praveen Khandelwal, who is also the president of the Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT), said at the event.The value was unlocked over the years and India moved from 2G to 5G.The 2008 spectrum auctions introduced 3G, followed by 4G in the mid-2010s, which truly unlocked internet access. Reliance Jio's entry in 2016 made 4G ubiquitous and affordable, cementing data as central to Indian life.Today, operators are rolling out 5G, promising faster speeds, lower latency, and the backbone for India's digital economy.Yet the road from that scratchy first call to a billion connections was anything but smooth, shaped by policy stumbles, market battles, and technological leaps that slowly pulled mobile phones out of elite circles and into the hands of everyday Indians.In the late 1990s, the sector was weighed down by a rigid duopoly and crippling licence fees, leaving subscriber numbers stuck in the low millions and casting doubt on whether mobiles could ever truly go mass in India.Mobiles were luxury gadgets, limited by high tariffs and patchy coverage. The promise of mass connectivity seemed distant, almost implausible.
Mobiles were still viewed as luxury gadgets, limited by high tariffs and patchy coverage. (Image: AFP)
The promise of mass connectivity nearly collapsed.The government's duopoly model restricted competition, while exorbitant licence fees strangled operators.By the late 1990s, subscribers numbered barely a million. Industry insiders recall the sector as "crippled before it could even walk."
Motorola's early flip phones like the StarTAC and Razr made mobiles a status symbol in India's first decade of mobile adoption. (Image: AFP)
It took the New Telecom Policy of 1999 to reverse the tide.The switch to a revenue-sharing model was the lifeline telecom companies needed. Only then did expansion seem feasible, though still slow and limited to cities.The real inflection point came in 2003, when "Calling Party Pays" was introduced.No longer did Indians have to pay to receive a call, a small regulatory shift that unlocked a psychological dam.Overnight, mobiles became less intimidating. Coupled with the arrival of affordable, nearly indestructible Nokia handsets, mobile phones slipped into the hands of clerks, shopkeepers and students.
Nokia's sturdy, affordable handsets like the 1100 turned mobile phones from status symbols into everyday tools for millions. (Image: Pexel)
advertisementCall rates plunged to under a rupee, prepaid cards worth as little as Rs10 made mobile access possible even in villages, and the missed-call — that peculiar Indian workaround for saving money — became a cultural phenomenon.The mid-2000s also saw India's telecom operators battle for dominance.Airtel, Hutch, Idea, BSNL and Reliance Infocomm vied for subscribers, pushing tariffs lower. India was adding millions of users every month, earning the tag of the world's fastest-growing mobile market.
Nokia's N70 signalled a new era in India, putting cameras and internet into the hands of everyday mobile users. (Image: India Today)
Spectrum auctions for 3G in 2008 were hailed as the next big leap, though high entry costs and poor infrastructure meant the dream of high-speed internet remained distant.advertisementStill, SMS was booming, and mobile phones were entrenched in the social fabric — for work, romance, family ties, and politics.If the 2000s belonged to voice, the 2010s marked the rise of data. Cheap Chinese handsets and homegrown brands like Micromax and Karbonn flooded the market, riding on Google's Android revolution.
Micromax's Q55 'Bling' (2010) epitomised India's turn to homegrown, affordable style phones during Nokia's decline and before smartphones took over. (Image: Amazon/Micromax)
Smartphones, once aspirational, became affordable.By 2011, India crossed 800 million subscribers, with Facebook and WhatsApp overtaking SMS as the dominant forms of communication.For the first time, the internet was not just on desktops but in people's pockets. Yet for all its promise, data remained costly and uneven. Rural users were often priced out of the internet.That inequality collapsed in 2016 with a disruption that upended the market. Reliance Jio's entry offered free calls and months of free 4G data. Rivals called it predatory; consumers called it liberation.
BlackBerry, once the phone of India's elite professionals, lost ground as touchscreens and affordable Android smartphones reshaped the market. (Image: Pexel)
advertisementWithin two years, Jio had rewritten the rules, forcing mergers, exits and consolidations.Data prices plunged by over 90 percent. India became the world's largest consumer of mobile data, streaming cricket matches, bingeing on Bollywood, paying bills on UPI, and discovering a new economy that lived inside their phones. The Jio moment didn't just change telecom, it reshaped commerce, media, and governance itself.
Apple's iPhone, launched in India in 2007, set the benchmark for smartphones and remains aspirational. (Image: Pexel)
The rollout of 5G in 2022 brought another leap, but by then, the phone had long stopped being a phone. It had become a bank for the unbanked, a television for the masses, a classroom for students, and a tool of political mobilisation.In 2025, India sits with over 1.2 billion connections and 750 million smartphone users, the world's second-largest market. They serve simultaneously as India's bank, enabling seamless digital payments; as a classroom, opening access to education across geography and class; as a television, streaming entertainment into the palm of one's hand; and as a vital lifeline, linking millions to healthcare, government services, work opportunities and personal networks.- Ends