According to a review of the Indian economy by the Department of Economic Affairs (DEA), average monthly data consumption per wireless data subscriber increased almost 300 times to 18.4 GB in June 2023 from 61.7 MB in March 2014. Tariffs for mobile services have reduced exponentially, with mobile data tariffs declining from Rs 269 per GB in 2014 to Rs 10.1 per GB in 2023. In addition, India has the third lowest average data tariff per GB.
The review stated that the government allowing 100 per cent foreign direct investment (FDI) in the telecom sector under the automatic route and prohibition of discriminatory data tariffs have increased competition in the market. In addition, the enabling policies of the government related to financial and telecom sectors have supported the growth of India stack.
Furthermore, as per the review, the entry of a new network operator in 2016 lowered the cost of mobile data, leading to a jump in data usage. Reliance Jio had launched 4G commercial services in September 2016, which led to the downward revision of mobile data tariffs.
