What ails India's fixed broadband

Even as India's wireless ecosystem has moved from strength to strength, its wireline broadband ecosystem continues to languish. 

Broadband in India is dominated by wireless, with many people accessing broadband for the first time on mobile. The growth of mobile broadband skyrocketed after the launch of 4G in 2016. But over the years, fixed broadband has suffered because of relatively high tariffs in wired broadband compared to wireless and a lack of focus among telcos in the fixed broadband space. Service providers focused on adding new wireless subscribers at the cost of fixed broadband. 

As of April 2022, India had just 27.83 million wired broadband subscribers compared to 760.94 million wireless broadband subscribers, according to the latest subscriber report released by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI). Fixed broadband penetration in the country is among the lowest in the world at only 1.69 per 100 inhabitants. The Indian fixed broadband market remains underpenetrated at just 9.1% of Indian households at the end of 2020. In terms of speeds, India considers a downlink rate of just 512 Kbps as broadband. 

"Indian fixed broadband penetration remains low and is heavily skewed towards urban areas. While 65.1% of the Indian populace live in rural areas (based on World Bank estimates for 2020), TRAI data shows that they account for a mere 5.6% of total fixed broadband connections," says Ookla.

India's wired broadband space is dominated by Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel and state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL). Until very recently, BSNL was the leader in this space with the highest number of subscribers and is known to have the most extensive fiber network in the country. However, Jio dethroned BSNL for the first time in this segment earlier this year. At the end of April 2022, Jio had 5.63 million wired broadband subscribers, followed by Bharti Airtel at 4.85 million, BSNL at 3.8 million and Atria Convergence at 2.08 million. 

The lack of robust infrastructure for fixed broadband was especially evident during the Covid-19 pandemic when work and learning moved to homes from offices and schools. The people who had access to quality wired broadband could carry out their professional and personal tasks during the pandemic, while others could not maintain business continuity. 

Realizing the sad state of fixed broadband in the country, the TRAI came up with recommendations last year to help achieve the goals of the National Digital Communications Policy 2018, which targets the universal broadband provision of 50 Mbps as well as breaking into the top 50 of the ITU's ICT Development Index by 2022. 

A key recommendation of TRAI is to change the definition of broadband for both fixed and mobile and increase the current speed of 512 Kbps to 2 Mbps. It also recommends coming up with new categories of fixed broadband speed beyond the new baseline, including basic (2-50 Mbps); fast (50-300 Mbps) and Super-fast (more than 300 Mbps). 

Hurdles

A key reason for the telcos' lack of focus on fixed broadband are the issues associated with the Right of Way (RoW) problem. Until very recently, Indian service providers required permission from multiple government authorities to lay fiber. Further, the rules differed in different states and sometimes even districts. It was not unusual for service providers to spend as much as six to eight months getting the required permission to lay fiber. 

However, now the focus is on building a robust fixed broadband network. This focus on fiber-based home broadband might be because of the Covid-19 pandemic which has put the spotlight on home networks. Further, 5G demands fiber networks to provide low latency and ultra-high-speed. Both Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel are expanding their fiber networks.

Earlier this year, Airtel said it will invest in a fiber rollout to expand its network in 2,000 towns over the next three years. It also hopes to grow its subscriber base from 4.8 million to 35 million in three years. Jio is also expanding its coverage of fixed broadband.