Telecom Industry in India: Market Size, Growth & Future

Investment/Major Development

With daily increasing subscriber base, there have been a lot of investment and development in the sector. FDI inflow in the telecom sector stood at Rs. 3,43,360 crore (US$ 40.07 billion) between April 2000-March 2025.

Some of the developments in the recent past are:

• India accounted for 7.9% of the global smartphone market by value in H1 CY25, up from 7.7% a year earlier, making it the third-largest market worldwide, even as China and the UK saw their shares decline.
• On August 22, 2025, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) urged M2M service providers, government ministries and IoT device makers to adopt oneM2M standards, to ensure secure, interoperable and scalable IoT ecosystems in India.
• Payments on unified payments interface (UPI) hit an all-time high of 20 billion (by volume), with transactions worth Rs. 24,85,472 crore (US$ 290 billion) in August 2025.
• In India, app usage recorded strong growth, with time spent rising to 1.12 trillion hours in 2024, compared with 991 billion hours in 2023 and 841 billion hours in 2022.
• On June 16, 2025, TRAI’s Independent Drive Tests showed call drop rates under 2% in most cities, but weaker performance in Delhi, Bihar & Jharkhand, and parts of Sikkim.
• On July 10, 2025, Mint reported that Gen Z is driving demand for hyper-personalised, seamless digital lending experiences in India, supported by platforms like RBI’s Unified Lending Platform.
• As of March 2025, the Indian telecom sector stands as the fourth-largest recipient of FDI equity inflows in India.
• Under the draft National Telecom Policy 2025, the government aims to double annual investment in the telecom sector, targeting Rs. 1,00,000 crore (US$ 11.67 billion) by 2030.
• The 5G infrastructure market is set to soar from Rs. 1,19,966 crore (US$ 14 billion) in 2025 to Rs. 49,18,606 crore (US$ 574.4 billion) by 2035, growing at a 45% CAGR on the back of rapid adoption, heavy investments, and large-scale rollouts.
• Recently, India added a record 6,450 new 5G base stations (BTS) in July 2025, its strongest monthly rollout in 2025, bringing the nationwide total to 4,92,520 BTS.
• As of June 2025, an impressive 42,093 out of 45,934 villages in India’s Northeastern Region now have mobile connectivity, including 40,663 with 4G access, supported by 2,485 towers commissioned through the Digital Bharat Nidhi to extend services in remote and border areas.
• Through the BharatNet initiative, India has commissioned 13,01,193 fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) connections empowering villagers, including farmers, with reliable Wi-Fi to access e-education, e-health, e-governance and e-commerce services.
• The total aggregated data consumption in India stood at 61,519 TB in FY25.
• The total wireless data usage in India grew at a rate of 17.46% from 1,94,774 PB in FY24 to 2,28,779 PB in FY25.
• Out of total data wireless usage, 2G data usage was 218 PB, 3G data usage was 915 PB, 4G data usage was 1,70,603 and 5G data usage was 57,042 PB in FY25.
• The contribution of 2G, 3G, 4G and 5G data usage to the total volume of wireless data usage was at 0.10%, 0.40%, 74.57% and 24.93% in FY25.
• On February 14, 2025, JioStar officially launched JioHotstar, merging JioCinema and Disney+ Hotstar into a single OTT platform with over 3,00,000 hours of content, multi-language support, AI-driven recommendations and premium sports, including IPL and ICC tournaments, into one immersive streaming experience.
• India’s 5G subscriber base is projected to surge to 980 million by 2030 from 290 million in 2024.
• As of June 2025, the wireless subscriber base of Jio stood at 483 million, followed by Bharti Airtel 294 million, Vodafone Idea 127 million, and BSNL 29 million.
• The wireless segment accounted for 96.1% of the total telephone subscriptions in June 2025 while, the wireline accounts for 3.9%.
• Bengaluru-based gear maker Tejas Networks has won a three-year deal (2024 to 2027) from Vodafone Idea (Vi) to supply backhaul equipment for India's third-largest telecom operator's 4G and commercial fifth-generation or 5G networks.
• The telecom industry recorded 10.72% sequential growth in gross revenue (AGR) at Rs. 3,72,097 crore (US$ 43.42 billion) in FY25 from Rs. 3,36,066 crore (US$ 39.22 billion) in FY24.
• On June 26, 2024, Vodafone Idea invested Rs. 3,510 crore (US$ 409 million) to acquire 50 MHz of spectrum across low and mid bands in 11 circles, boosting its 4G capacity and laying the groundwork for 5G rollout.
• Union Minister of Communications Mr. Jyotiraditya Scindia inaugurated Bharat Telecom 2025 in New Delhi, highlighting India's growing role as a global telecom exporter and innovation hub.
• Airtel Payments Bank surpassed one billion transactions in January 2025, reflecting a 47% YoY growth in transaction volume. The achievement highlights the increasing adoption of digital banking solutions and the bank's diverse business model.
• Independent telecom tower companies are expected to spend Rs 21,000 crore (US$ 2.42 billion) for the period between FY25 and FY26 in order to support the telecom companies in expanding rural networks and also improving service quality in urban areas, stated a report by CRISIL Ratings.
• Bharti Airtel has become the first private telecom operator to launch mobile services in Kupwara, Baramulla and Bandipore districts of Jammu and Kashmir.
• The Centre for Development of Telematics (C-DOT) and IIT Roorkee have partnered to develop a "Millimetre Wave Transceiver for 5G Rural Connectivity," supported by the Telecom Technology Development Fund. The project aims to improve affordable broadband and mobile services, bridging India’s digital divide.
• Vodafone Idea (Vi), boosted by a recent equity funding, plans to open more retail outlets to increase the sales.
• India's Bharat 6G alliance and the European telecom industry organization Industry are planning to establish a partnership. This partnership will facilitate cooperation between the two groups in the development of 6G technology.
• To make India 5G-ready, there is a push for fiberisation of telecom towers. Currently, 36% of towers are fiberized, and plans involve deploying 12 lakh towers.