India's broadband numbers: The devil is in the details

Time of India

19 hours ago

India is both a leader and a laggard in internet access. It ranks second in the world, after China, in the number of people connected to the internet and first among those unconnected. Neither ranking tells the complete story, but both contradict the exaggerated claims of officials and cynics. I examine more detailed data for successes, failures, and the remaining challenges.
Let us start with the successes. India's telecommunications network and broadband infrastructure have grown dramatically in the thirty years since the government dismantled its monopoly and opened the market to private players. The network's reach and usage have improved markedly; telephony and
broadband internet
subscriptions have skyrocketed. According to the
Telecom Regulatory Authority of India
(
TRAI
), India has 1.2 billion telephone subscribers and over 944 million broadband subscribers today. The government says 4G, a wireless broadband technology, covers over 99% of India, while 5G is reportedly available in 773 districts out of 776. This implies near-universal telephone access and over 65% broadband penetration.
According to
GSMA Intelligence
, 92.3% of mobile connections in India are run on 'broadband' 3G, 4G, or 5G mobile networks. The telecom minister says India would have a billion internet users by the end of the fiscal year.
The vast network upgrade has been a boon for India's digital public infrastructure (DPI), transforming the delivery of several key citizen-centric services. Examples include seamless identity verification, Direct Benefit Transfer to recipient accounts,
Universal Payment Interface
(
UPI
), and toll payments using FASTag, all of which have achieved countrywide success. The DPI's scale, encompassing the entire population, is a singular achievement.
India is a key market for global internet giants such as Google, Facebook, and Amazon. According to Datareportal, a portal specialising in internet usage data, India had 751.5 million social media users in early 2025. With 200-500 million subscribers for social media, messaging, video streaming, and e-commerce applications, Indians' uptake of online services is remarkable.
Yet, there are worrying gaps in access, which are often poorly captured in aggregate countrywide data for a country with over 1.4 billion people like India.
According to TRAI data, rural areas have about 20% fewer subscribers than urban areas, even though the former has more than 25% more residents. Similarly, economically disadvantaged states like Bihar, Jharkhand, Assam, Jammu and Kashmir, the Northeast, and Himachal Pradesh have significantly lower internet access compared to more prosperous regions like Maharashtra and Gujarat. The metropolitan areas are far better off than the rest of the country.
Women face significant disadvantages in accessing the internet. According to a recent report by
GSMA
, the global body of the cellular industry, barely 37% of India's women access the internet. While two-thirds of men have used the internet, only half of the women in India have. A recent survey estimated that 34.5 per cent of India's social media user identities were female, while 65.5 per cent were male. Data for India reports that barely 27% own a handset for their exclusive use. An estimated 21% of women have never used a phone or the internet.
Several other factors constrain broadband access, too. A worrying sign is the widespread use of 2G, a technology best suited for voice calls with minimal support for internet access. India has an estimated 200 million 2G users. All telecom operators – except
Reliance Jio
, which has not deployed 2G - continue to run their 2G networks. Roughly 50 million 2G handsets are sold annually.
The TRAI does not separately report 2G subscribers. However, its report indicates that 2G users account for 0.09 % of the data consumed. Thus, 2G mobile subscribers—roughly 20 % of the total—do not access the internet or do so rarely.
The government has initiated two important projects to address the gaps in access. The BharatNet project seeks to extend broadband optical fibre to all villages, and the PM-WANI (Prime Minister Wi-Fi Access Network Interface) aims to assist local entrepreneurs in offering Wi-Fi internet access.
BharatNet was envisaged to deliver broadband to 2.4 lakh gram panchayats by 2013. It missed that and several later deadlines. The target was revised later to connect all the 6.5 lakh villages by August 2023. A recent report says BharatNet has connected only 30% of villages and may miss its revised 2025 deadline. PM-WANI envisaged 10 million public Wi-Fi hotspots by 2022, but as of 2025, only 280,000 hotspots have been deployed. Half are in urban areas, and 45% are in Delhi. The repeatedly missed targets in BharatNet and PM-WANI suggest a significant deficit in rural broadband connectivity.
Mobile data Usage in India demands a nuanced look. At 27 GB per connection, it is amongst the highest in the world. On the one hand, this implies the wide use of diverse digital services. On the other hand, it denotes the shortage of alternative internet access, such as fixed lines (cable and optical fibre) and satellite services. With mobiles contributing over 96% of connections, India lacks network diversity. In mature markets, fixed-line data usage far exceeds wireless. (A recent report said that a US household consumes 550-700 GB monthly.) Exclusive reliance on cellular mobile services is a risk.
However, network access is critical but not sufficient. Experts recognise that internet access is not just a 'supply-side' issue. The
International Telecommunication Union
(ITU) – and recently the TRAI too- have emphasised 'Universal and Meaningful Connectivity' (UMC). UMC requires network availability, adequate quality and security, affordable services and devices, and skills. According to the ITU, 'each dimension contributes to a meaningful digital experience, and strength in one cannot compensate for weakness in another'.
Therefore, without context, aggregated data or crude calculations offer a limited understanding of the progress and the remaining challenges. Besides network reach and capacity, we need more accurate local information, affordability of services and smartphones, availability of relevant content, and usage data based on gender, income, etc.
Data can also be misleading if the underlying assumptions are unclear. For instance, the TRAI data treats the number of active subscriptions as the number of subscribers. It ignores the use of multiple SIMs, as revealed by its calculations of teledensity -the number of connections as a percentage of the population. (Teledensity of Delhi is 278% and in Urban areas, 124%!). Similarly, TRAI's data of 944 million broadband users in India refers to active accounts, not unique users. A person with a 4G SIM and landline subscription counts as two subscribers. The TRAI data, therefore, significantly overestimates the number of phone and internet subscribers in India.
Exaggerated claims of access and usage can be counterproductive. They can overstate readiness for digital services or discourage regulatory attention to the remaining unmet objectives. Indeed, prematurely replacing conventional services with digital alternatives, without considering those with limited or no access, might further harm the vulnerable. There are several reports to this effect. Workers struggle to digitally record attendance in the government's flagship employment programme, MNREGA. Seven out of ten people find it difficult to book railway tickets online.
During the COVID pandemic, it was revealed that barely 25% of students could access lessons online. We ignore these challenges at our peril. India's extensive broadband network and the impressive DPI are admittedly massive growth drivers. However, their impact will be suboptimal if we don't identify and fill the gaps. The devil is in the details!
(Mahesh Uppal heads Com First (India) Pvt Ltd, a consulting company, which advises diverse clients on regulatory and policy aspects of telecommunications and internet.)
(DISCLAIMER: Views expressed are the author's personal.)