According to the information provided by the minister of state for Communications and Rural Development in a written reply in the Lok Sabha, the government has undertaken several measures to strengthen the telecom sector in the country. These include the rationalisation of adjusted gross revenue, bank guarantees and interest rates, along with the removal of penalties. The requirement of bank guarantees for spectrum instalment payments has been dispensed with for auctions held after September 15, 2021. Other measures include allowing spectrum surrender after 10 years in future auctions, doing away with spectrum usage charges (SUC) for spectrum acquired after September 15, 2021, and removing the additional 0.5 per cent SUC on spectrum sharing.
The government has also permitted 100 per cent foreign direct investment in the telecom sector under the automatic route, subject to safeguards. The licence requirement under the 1953 customs notification for wireless equipment has been replaced with self-declaration. Paper customer acquisition forms have been substituted with digital storage, while Standing Advisory Committee on Radio Frequency Allocation (SACFA) clearance norms for telecom towers have been eased and the tenure of spectrum has been extended from 20 to 30 years.
As a result, the country’s digital infrastructure has expanded significantly over the years. The optical fibre cable network has increased from 1.75 million km in March 2018 to 4.23 million km in September 2025, while the number of base transceiver stations has risen from 1.73 million in March 2018 to 3.14 million in October 2025. As of October 2025, mobile services cover 0.634 million of India’s 0.644 million villages, with 0.63 million having 4G services.
Meanwhile, broadband subscriptions have nearly doubled from 480 million in September 2018 to 980 million in June 2025. Around 0.38 million PM-WANI Wi-Fi hotspots have been installed across the country as of October 31, 2025. Data consumption has also increased sharply, from 8.32 GB per subscriber per month in September 2018 to 25.24 GB in September 2025, while the average wireless data tariff has reduced from Rs 10.91 per GB to Rs 8.27.
Further, to improve digital access in rural and remote regions, the government is implementing schemes under the Digital Bharat Nidhi, including 4G saturation projects and the amended BharatNet programme.
