Category: Weekly Column

India’s telecom sector continues to show growth, with the total number of telephone subscribers crossing the 1.2 billion mark, according to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on Thursday.

The total subscriber base increased from 1,189.92 million in December 2024 to 1,200.80 million in March 2025. Tele-density also rose during the quarter — reflecting better connectivity across urban and rural areas.

Urban subscribers grew to 666.11 million, while rural subscribers touched 534.69 million.

This growth led to an increase in rural tele-density, indicating deeper digital reach in remote regions.

The share of rural subscriptions also rose from 44.31 per cent at the end of December 2024 to 44.53 per cent at the end of March 2025.

Wireless subscriptions witnessed significant growth, with more than 13 million new connections added during the quarter ending March 31.

The combined mobile and 5G FWA user base reached 1,163.76 million, while traditional mobile connections alone rose to 1,156.99 million.

This suggests growing interest in mobile services across consumer segments.

India’s broadband internet landscape remains robust, with over 944 million subscribers.

This reflects India’s continued dominance as one of the world’s largest internet user bases, even as new technologies shape the way people connect.

The sector also saw an improvement in financial performance. Gross Revenue (GR) for the quarter stood at Rs 98,250 crore, with Adjusted Gross Revenue (AGR) touching Rs 79,226 crore.

License fee collections also grew, underlining the strong demand for telecom services.

Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) for wireless services rose to Rs 182.95, with prepaid users contributing Rs 182.53 and postpaid users averaging Rs 187.48 per month.

User engagement remained high, as average minutes of usage per month increased to 1,026 — showing higher interaction with telecom services for voice, data, and content.

The broadcasting sector remained stable, with 333 satellite pay TV channels reported out of 908 permitted channels, including 101 HD channels.

The Pay DTH segment recorded an active user base of 56.92 million, offering a wide range of content alongside Doordarshan’s free services. The Hans India

Elon Musk’s Starlink Services, which delivers high-speed internet almost anywhere on the Earth, has got the approval from the Department of Telecom (DoT) for commercial operations, said Telecom Secretary Neeraj Mittal.

However, they still need to get another couple of approvals from the department. “Once they apply for spectrum, they need to do the testing and then show compliance to the security conditions,” he told businessline on the sidelines of a symposium here on Thursday.

When asked if there is any timeframe, he said, “essentially it is in the hands of Starlink now. Government is not standing in the way.”

Starlink is the third company to get a licence from DoT, which had approved similar applications by Eutelsat’s OneWeb and Reliance Jio to provide services in the country.

Satcom Licence
On Amazon Kuiper getting a licence for satcom, Mittal said, “I think application is in place, but I think it is a little distance from approval.”

If there is any timeline on getting the licence, he said, “I don’t think it is in our hands. They have to pursue it and come up with whatever gaps there are in the application,” he said.

Mittal was in Chennai to inaugurate the first Telecom Technology Development Fund (TTDF) Symposium 2025. The three-day event brought together thought leaders, innovators, and industry stakeholders to explore India’s strides in telecom R&D, indigenous technologies, and the vision for a digitally empowered Bharat.

After giving a brief about the fund, Mittal urged the audience to raise any issue that they may have about the fund, which was launched two years ago, and improve it.

Later talking to newspersons, Mittal said the department is working on re-vamping the entire sanction programme of TTDF. The idea of the whole workshop is to actually get people to tell what is not working and how it can be made better.

Digital Bharat Nidhi, erstwhile Universal Service Obligation Fund under the DoT launched TTDF on October 1, 2022.

There has been a tremendous amount of funds which have flown into the telecom sector. The challenge of this programme is collaboration. Getting synergies across projects. This symposium is really intended to bring all this knowledge together, he said.

Proposals doubled
Mittal said in 2024-25, the number of proposals evaluated doubled to 941 as against 405 in the previous year. A total of 125 proposals were approved in 2024-25 as against seven in the previous year (up by 18 times) and the number of MoUs winged was 111 as against 7 (15 times). In 2024-25, a sum of ₹297 crore was approved as against ₹255 in the corresponding year. A sum of ₹158 crore was disbursed (₹29 crore), he said.

Mittal said the department is also on an electronic platform by which knowledge sharing can happen among various stakeholders. “We want to keep this pace going and we hope that we will be able to learn with all these suggestions made to improve upon the existing structure,” he said.

Mittal said that a lot of research is happening.

“We have made targeted calls for chipset design, rural connectivity pilots, 6G, Quantum standardisation and certification, financial support for market readiness. We are trying to cover the entire supply chain of the telecom research ecosystem,” he said. The Hindu BusinessLine

New funding will help accelerate Brightspeed’s effort to reach 5 million homes with fiber, the Charlotte-based internet service provider (ISP) has announced.

The $575 million in new funding, announced Thursday, builds on the $3.7 billion raised by Brightspeed in 2024, according to the ISP.

Brightspeed, which operates a footprint that spans across 20 states, says they’ve passed approximately 1 million homes with fiber in 2025.

“The additional capital reflects robust support from investors and affirms their confidence in the Brightspeed thesis: a large, underpenetrated footprint, a focused and proven build engine, and a long runway for value creation through fiber expansion,” the ISP’s release explained.

Michel Combes, Brightspeed’s executive chairman and CEO, said the new capital will allow Brightspeed to maintain their aggressive build strategy.

In comments included with Brightspeed’s release, he said the company will continue “bringing high-speed connectivity to communities that have historically lacked quality broadband options.”

“We’ve made tremendous progress, and this new funding underscores the credit market’s belief in our strategy and reaffirms the strength of our execution,” Combes said.

Beyond private funding, nearly $300 million in public broadband grants and subsidies have been secured by Brightspeed to date, the ISP stated.

The company, which leverages XGS-PON technology to deliver multi-gig speeds, remains focused on building fiber “quickly and efficiently, bringing future-proof fiber connectivity to as many homes and businesses in our footprint as possible,” Combes stated.

“We are delivering results at scale and remain committed to maintain our strong build momentum,” he said.

Currently, Brightspeed services are across 530 communities, the ISP’s release stated, with a network platform capable of serving over 7 million homes and businesses. BBCMag