India is the world's second-largest telecommunications market. As of December 2023, tele-density stood at 85.23%. In India, the total telephone subscriber base stood at 1,190.33 million in December 2023.

As of December 2023, the wireless subscribers base stood at 1,158.49 million. As of December 2023, the wireless subscriber base of Jio stood at 459.81 million, followed by Bharti Airtel (257.37 million), Vodafone Idea 127.28 million, and BSNL (21.28 million).

Total broadband subscriptions in the country grew from 149.75 million in FY16 to 904.54 million in FY23 (April-December). The number of wired broadband subscriptions stood at 38.35 million in FY24 (April-December). Wireless broadband subscribers stood at 866.19 million in FY24 (April-December). As of December 2023, the top five service providers were as follows: Reliance Jio Infocom Ltd stood at 470.19 million, followed by Bharti Airtel (264.76 million), Vodafone Idea 127.29 million, and BSNL (25.12 million).

In April-September 2023 India’s Internet subscribers reached 918.19 million of which 37.11 million were wired subscribers and 881.08 million were wireless internet subscribers.

India is also the second-largest country in terms of internet subscribers. India is one of the biggest consumers of data worldwide. India was the second-largest market for Google Play in 2019 and was estimated to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 11% between 2018 to 2022. In 2020, India accounted for 14% of the global app installs. Indians downloaded over 28 billion apps on their mobiles in 2022 and accounted for 5% of the 625 billion downloads globally. App downloads in the country increased from 12.07 billion in 2017 to 19 billion in 2019. The Government of India intends to establish one hundred labs for creating applications using 5G services in engineering universities as part of the Union Budget 2023, in order to realize a new range of possibilities, business models, and job potential.

The aggregated data consumed as of September 2023, was 73,23,038 GB. The total wireless data usage in India grew at a rate of 5.9% from 44,967 PB in June 2023 to 47,629 PB in September 2023. Out of total data wireless usage, 2G data usage was 46 PB, 3G data usage was 353 PB, 4G data usage was 42,505 and 5G data usage was 2,063 PB during the (April 2023- June 2023) quarter. The contribution of 2G, 3G, 4G and 5G data usage to the total volume of wireless data usage was at 0.10%, 0.78%, 94.53% and 4.59%.

Gross revenue of the telecom sector stood at Rs. 82,741 crore (US$ 9.99 billion) in the second quarter of FY24. Strong policy support from the Government has been crucial to the sector’s development. Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) cap in the telecom sector increased to 100% from 74%. In October 2021, the government notified 100% foreign direct investment (FDI) via the automatic route from the previous 49% in the telecommunications sector.

FDI inflow in the telecom sector stood at US$ 39.31 billion between April 2000-December 2023.

To make India 5G-ready, there's a push for fiberisation of telecom towers. Currently, 36% of towers are fiberized, and plans involve deploying 12 lakh towers.

In May 2023, STT GDC invested Rs. 2,000 crore (US$ 242.33 million) in two more data centres in Pune.

As of March 2023, Jio partnered with EESL to provide 1 million smart prepaid meters in Bihar.

In February 2022, Bharti Airtel acquired 10% strategic stake in a Singapore-based start-up, Aqilliz.

In January 2022, Google made a US$ 1 billion investment in Airtel through the India Digitization Fund.

According to a Zenith Media survey, India is expected to become the fastest-growing telecom advertisement market, with an annual growth rate of 11% between 2020 and 2023.

The Government of India, through its National Digital Communications Policy, foresee investment worth US$ 100 billion in the telecommunications sector by 2022. The government is encouraging global telecom network manufacturers such as Ericsson, Nokia, Samsung, and Huawei to manufacture all their equipment in India with 100% local products. The Rs. 12,195 crore (US$ 1.65 billion) production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme already triggered the entry of several global players manufacturing mobile devices and components. European telecom gear vendors like Ericsson and Nokia are eager to expand their existing operations in India for a global supply chain under the PLI scheme. Similarly, global vendors like Samsung, Cisco, Ciena, Jabil, Foxconn, Sanmina, and Flex have shown interest in setting up manufacturing in India for telecom and networking products under the newly announced PLI scheme.

As of March 2023, the PLI scheme for Large-Scale Electronics Manufacturing (LSEM) attracted investment of Rs. 5,998 crore (US$ 726.77 million) and led to a total production of Rs. 2,76,903 crore (US$ 33.55 billion), including exports of Rs. 1,28,886 crore (US$ 15.61 billion).

In March 2021, TEPC (Telecom Equipment Export Promotion Council) organised India Telecom 2021—a platform for convergence of technologies and business exchange.

In July 2021, Bharat Broadband Network Limited (BBNL), on behalf of the Department of Telecommunication, invited global tender for the development of BharatNet through the Public-private Partnership model in 9 separate packages across 16 states for a concession period of 30 years. Under this project, the government provided a maximum grant of Rs. 19,041 crore (US$ 2.56 billion) as viability gap funding.

In August 2021, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) officials stated that it is working on a package, which includes reducing the revenue share licence fee to 6% of the adjusted gross revenue (AGR) of the operators from the current 8%. This would be done by reducing the 5% universal service obligation levy by two percentage points and providing relief of about Rs. 3,000 crore (US$ 403.63 million) annually to the operators.

In October 2021, Telecom Secretary Mr. K. Rajaraman inaugurated the Quantum Communication Lab at the Centre for Development of Telematics (C-DOT), Delhi, and unveiled the indigenously developed Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) solution by C-DOT. QKD can support a distance of >100 kms on standard optical fibre.

The Union Cabinet approved Rs. 12,195 crore (US$ 1.65 billion) production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme for telecom & networking products under the Department of Telecom.

Note: F- Forecast, PB - Petabytes