According to Crisil, India’s fixed broadband subscriptions, especially in urban areas, have increased substantially following widespread adoption of work-from-home practice amidst the nationwide lockdown announced by the government to contain COVID-19 pandemic. Moreover, data usage has also increased by 25-30 per cent since March 25, 2020. However, this increase in data consumption has resulted in slower speeds.
Further, Crisil believes that the nationwide lockdown will help boost India’s fixed broadband segment, which has been stagnating at around 18-19 million subscribers since 2016. The ratings agency highlighted that at present, India’s fixed broadband penetration is at 6 per cent which is lowest in the world, compared with 55 per cent in China, 70 per cent in Eurozone, and 80 per cent in Japan.
Crisil predicts that, in a medium-term there will be a hike in mobile tariffs which could help sustain some of the uptick in fixed broadband usage since its price differential with mobile data would reduce.
