India’s internet and broadband ecosystem moved into a new phase in 2025, marked by bigger scale, wider reach and heavier usage. The country crossed the 1 billion broadband connections mark, up from 131 million a decade earlier, highlighting how quickly internet access has expanded across income groups and geographies. Usage levels also went up, with the typical wireless user consuming around 24 GB a month. This was supported by low tariffs, with data prices falling to approximately $0.1 per GB from $0.16 a year earlier, as per industry estimates, and by the growing adoption of streaming, digital payments, and online services across urban and rural India.
As of September 2025, fixed (wired) access internet subscribers stood at 44.42 million and wireless (fixed plus mobile) access internet subscribers had reached 973.39 million, while public Wi-Fi hotspots, which are separate from the Prime Minister’s Wi-Fi Access Network Interface (PM-WANI) hotspots, were recorded at 55,940, with 10,778 terabytes (TB) of aggregate data consumed through these Wi-Fi hotspots.
Coverage improved further during the year. By mid-2025, 97.65 per cent of the villages had mobile network coverage, and 96.8 per cent had 4G connectivity. The 4G saturation programme progressed steadily, extending 4G services to about 19,465 previously unconnected villages in remote and challenging regions. This helped bridge the urban-rural access gap. Meanwhile, the expanding 5G footprint improved the overall capacity and user experience, with median mobile download speeds increasing to 131.47 Mbps by October 2025, compared to about 10 Mbps in 2019. By year-end, live 5G networks were available in almost all districts, supporting higher throughput as data demand continued to rise.
At the same time, rural broadband progress remained anchored in BharatNet and various enabling reforms. Policy measures to reduce right-of-way (RoW) friction and speed up approvals also supported the build-out of fibre backhaul, which is essential for sustained speed improvements and more consistent service.
A look at the key developments in the internet and broadband space during 2025…
Fibre expansion drives home broadband growth
Home broadband remained one of the most competitive areas of the market. Operators continued to scale their fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) networks as demand shifted from basic access to stable, high quality connections for work, learning and entertainment. Bharti Airtel’s Xstream Fibre reported a strong year-on-year growth in home passes, with its fibre footprint crossing 500,000 km and reaching over 1,100 towns and cities. Reliance JioFiber also expanded its reach, supported by scale and infrastructure-sharing arrangements. By the end of 2025, both operators had built a significant presence across Tier I and Tier II cities and were extending coverage into smaller towns where home broadband adoption is rising steadily.
Subscriber trends continued to favour the top two players. As of November 2025, Jio led the broadband market with over 510 million subscribers across mobile and fixed services. Airtel followed with around 314 million. Vodafone Idea Limited (Vi) and Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) had smaller numbers in overall subscriber terms. In fixed broadband too, Jio was ahead in FTTH and added more home broadband users during the year, while Airtel continued to scale and deepen bundled offerings that combine broadband with TV and over-the-top services. This bundling approach helped operators improve customer stickiness and raise the overall value proposition in a competitive market.
BSNL, once a major fixed-line provider, continued to face pressure in the FTTH market. It expanded fibre in rural and remote pockets, and supported BharatNet-linked last-mile delivery. However, intense competition and slower upgrade
cycles limited its ability to keep pace with the growth of private players.
On the network side, fibre deployment continued to scale. By September 2025, about 4.23 million route km of optic fibre cable had been deployed, more than double that at the end of 2019.
BharatNet strengthens the rural backbone
BharatNet remained the core driver of rural broadband expansion. Under Phase I and Phase II, the programme covered 222,341 gram panchayats, of which 214,904 were service-ready, as per the latest ministry data. This represents steady progress from the end-2023 levels and indicates that the backbone infrastructure is extending across most rural administrative units. To speed up rural broadband roll-out, the government is focusing on the Amended BharatNet Programme (ABP), with an outlay of Rs 1.39 trillion, to extend ring-based fibre to over 265,000 gram panchayats and around 380,000 villages on demand, while treating BharatNet as a national asset under the Digital Bharat Nidhi (DBN) for fair, non-discriminatory access.
Rural FTTH under BharatNet also
expanded. Over 1.4 million FTTH connections have been provided under the programme as of January 2026, up sharply from about 0.8 million in late 2023. These connections include links to schools and gram panchayat offices, strengthening the delivery of e-education and e-governance services.
Policy direction also strengthened with the launch of the National Broadband Mission [NBM] 2.0 in January 2025. It outlined targets for 2025-30, including extending optic fibre to additional villages with defined uptime, improving institutional connectivity, and raising average fixed broadband speeds. These measures aim to create a more execution-ready framework for broadband expansion.
The policy environment also improved with the Telecom RoW Rules, 2024, coming into effect from January 1, 2025. The framework standardised procedures and fees across jurisdictions and was designed to cut delays in fibre and tower deployments. With approvals reportedly falling from over 400 days to around 60 days, operators now have greater predictability while planning and executing roll-outs. The GatiShakti Sanchar portal was also aligned with the updated regime to support faster processing and better visibility of permissions.
Public Wi-Fi gains momentum under PM-WANI
Public Wi-Fi gathered pace in 2025 after policy changes were initiated for improving ease of deployment and user experience. By November 26, 2025, operational PM-WANI hotspots had reached around 392,000, which is more than double the level in the previous year. The model relies on small entrepreneurs operating as public data offices (PDOs), offering low-cost Wi-Fi in local shops, common service centres and public spaces.
During the year, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) allowed PDOs to use existing FTTH connections as backhaul, reducing entry costs. It also allowed multiple access points to share one connection and enabled roaming across different aggregator networks. This helped to reduce friction for users moving between hotspots.
As a result, the footprint widened beyond metros, although large cities still dominated the landscape. Delhi accounted for nearly 198,000 hotspots by November 2025, followed by Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra. Smaller and remote regions such as Lakshadweep and Mizoram also saw initial deployments, underlining the pan-Indian intent.
Emerging solutions for difficult areas
Alongside, emerging technologies started
filling last-mile gaps where fibre deployment remained slow or costly. FWA, supported by 5G networks, became a key lever for expanding home broadband. Plug-and-play routers allowed operators to add customers faster, especially where FTTH deployment takes longer. Jio’s AirFiber continued to scale through 2025, and in January 2026, the company had reportedly crossed 10 million subscribers, indicating a sharp rise in FWA demand. Airtel also introduced FWA plans in select markets, although at a more measured pace.
Satellite connectivity gained attention, especially for hard-to-reach geographies such as hilly terrain and remote clusters. Under BharatNet, the government had connected over 5,000 village panchayats through satellite links by the end of October 2025, using high-throughput satellites where terrestrial deployment was difficult. In the private sector, Bharti-backed OneWeb and Jio Satellite Communications received authorisations to offer broadband-from-space services across the country. Over time, satellite backhaul and satellite broadband are expected to complement terrestrial networks, especially for the most difficult last-mile locations.
States widen broadband delivery models
States across the country continued to build their respective connectivity programmes and delivery models. The Kerala Fibre Optic Network (Kfon) initiative achieved over 100,000 active connections, backed by a large fibre build-out, with the aim of connecting households and offices at scale, including below-poverty-line families, and positioning the state as an active player in broadband delivery. Andhra Pradesh reviewed steps to revive AP FiberNet, expand connections, and align programme funding and architecture with wider connectivity objectives, including upgrades to improve
reliability in select gram panchayats.
Telangana also reviewed progress under the T-Fiber programme, with the state seeking a clearer action plan to extend services to every household and village.
In Uttar Pradesh, the Prayagraj district administration has announced a pilot to develop 23 model digital villages by May 2026, with FTTH connectivity planned for one village in each block. The aim is to improve access to education, healthcare and government services. BSNL has been tasked to execute it.
Challenges and outlook
Despite strong gains in mobile connectivity, fixed broadband penetration remains low. India has about 3.15 fixed broadband connections per 100 people, compared to far higher levels in markets such as South Korea and China, based on research by the Broadband India Forum (BIF). BharatNet has extended fibre to most gram panchayats, but last-mile delivery remains uneven in rural and peri-urban areas. While RoW reforms have improved predictability, on-ground capacity and coordination challenges continue to obstruct timely roll-outs. India’s overall internet density has plateaued at around 68.63 per cent, with rural density at 45.03 per cent, indicating that affordability and access barriers continue to limit adoption among a large section of the population.
Moving ahead, the next phase of broadband growth will depend less on headline coverage milestones and more on last-mile outcomes. BharatNet’s amended design and the targets under NBM 2.0 provide a stronger backbone; however, delivery will hinge on faster village-level
execution, stronger state coordination and deeper institutional connections. In this context, a blended access model is likely to define the market. Fibre will remain the preferred option for institutions and dense clusters, FWA will enable rapid household additions where fibre roll-out is slow, and satellite links will increasingly serve as a practical option for hard-to-reach areas. Public Wi-Fi can also scale if hotspot economics improve and if users
adopt Wi-Fi as a regular access layer rather than a temporary alternative. If affordability is addressed alongside service quality, India can move from connectivity expansion to deeper inclusion, where broadband supports measurable gains in education, health delivery and local
enterprise growth.
Shashwat Singh
