Wireline subscriptions in India increased by 8.3 per cent in the second half of 2024 with more users in urban areas compared to rural areas.
In the AI age and 5G, India’s urban population seems to be gravitating towards fixed-line broadband services, with the percentage share steadily increasing from 92.09 per cent to 92.42 per cent between August and December 2024. In contrast, such services are losing steam in rural areas where the percentage share has decreased from 7.91 per cent in August to 7.58 per cent in December. From an annual perspective, wireline subscribers have gone up 23 per cent from 31.84 million in December 2023 to 39.27 million in December 2024.
Mahesh Uppal, Director of Com First (India), said the persisting demand in urban regions for wireline services is due to the need for better bandwidth to stream videos online, internet browsing, etc.
“Urban users want the ability to access a fiber-based internet connection, which has more bandwidth to offer and also works better in case of a break. With wireless there are also spots like basements where there is much less coverage. Fiber mitigates those problems,” said Uppal.
Urban folk who have the incentive as well as resources to pay for wireline, thus try to gain more than one connection. However, Uppal stressed that this is true only in the urban scenario.
In the case of rural areas, fiber and other fixed-line connections are an expensive endeavour as the physical network is sparse and paying capacity of users is low. It is difficult to charge high installation rates in such regions.
“This is why wireless connection was such a godsend for India, because it completely did away with having to dig roads and delivering cable to every single house. Now, if you are within reach of a tower, you’re covered. But if you wanted a fixed-line service, the issue is more complicated and it’s easier to provide you that in an urban area,” said Uppal.
In July 2024, businessline had reported a nearly 50 per cent increase in fixed-wireline subscriptions between March 2023 and March 2024. However, India’s home broadband is still far lower than developed countries like the US that reported 92 per cent of households with broadband at home as per a Parks Associates reports.