India will lag in terms of broadband compared to other regions if it remains majorly mobile broadband dominant, said Broadband India Forum (BIF) in one of its submissions to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI).
Taking issue with some telecom stakeholder claims of public Wi-Fi being redundant considering a 95 per cent user access to data via mobile broadband, the BIF wrote in its letter how fixed broadband is critical from an economic and policy standpoint. It argued that India will struggle to meet global benchmarks in broadband performance if it does not provide adequate fixed broadband or Public Wi-Fi hotspots.
“Fixed broadband is vastly more cost-effective than mobile broadband, with data costs as low as ₹1-2 per GB, compared to ₹10 per GB for mobile broadband. Despite these efficiencies, fixed broadband adoption remains low, largely due to higher retail subscription costs. Unlike mobile broadband plans, which offer limited data allowances, fixed broadband plans typically provide unlimited usage, leading to relatively higher upfront costs for consumers,” said the BIF.
Mobile networks
Globally, mobile networks handle only one-fifth of the traffic compared to fixed broadband networks. Total global fixed broadband traffic amounted to 5,966 Exabytes, significantly surpassing mobile broadband traffic, which stood at 1,279 Exabytes, as per data from ITU in 2024. This means mobile broadband traffic was only 17.6 per cent of total broadband traffic. On a per-subscription basis, fixed broadband usage is 22 times higher than mobile broadband.
Meanwhile in India, total wireless data usage reached 56,000 petabytes per quarter (as of June and September 2024) or approximately 224 Exabytes annually. This means India’s usage constituted 17.5 per cent of global mobile broadband traffic but only 3 per cent of global broadband traffic.
“Based on an assumed usage of 350GB/month per fixed broadband subscriber, India’s annual fixed broadband traffic is at 183 Exabytes. This implies that fixed broadband contributes approximately 45 per cent of India’s total broadband traffic, highlighting the stark contrast with global trends where fixed broadband overwhelmingly dominates data consumption,” said the BIF.
The organisation also stressed how mobile broadband has inherent limitations and cannot always guarantee minimum internet speeds, especially in high-traffic areas.
Tele-density
Referring to November 2024 data, BIF pointed out how there has been no significant increase in India’s tele-density from 84.46. per cent in April 2023 to 84.32 per cent in November 2024. Within this number, there is a huge urban-rural gap with urban tele-density accounting for 131.86 per cent while the rural tele-density is only 58.48 per cent.
Similarly, internet-density was reported at 69.10 per cent as on September 2024 with urban Internet-density at 112.74 per cent and rural internet-density at 44.85 per cent. This is lower than the tele-density numbers of November 2024 that shows 84.32 per cent overall tele-density, 131.86 per cent urban tele-density and 58.48 per cent rural tele-density.
“All of this goes to show that the broadband adoption trend appears sluggish, despite advancements in technology. This could imply that affordability and accessibility issues, influenced by tariff hikes, continue to deter widespread broadband adoption,” said BIF.
In March 2025, HSBC Global Research also predicted that home broadband subscriptions to be the next big growth for telecom operators. It estimated subscriptions to increase to 177 per cent or 111 million by FY2030 from 40 million in 2024. Further, it noted that FWA adoption increased over the last nine months as equipment prices decreased and operators strengthened their installation and distribution capabilities.
