SIGNALS, SCALE, STRATEGY

After a heavy investment cycle and explosive data growth, India's telecom sector is ready to monetise momentum in 2026

- By Ashish Sinha

India's telecommunications sector closed 2025 at an important inflection point. After years defined by balance-sheet stress, consolidation, and then an aggressive 5G rollout, the industry entered a phase of relative stability and strategic recalibration. Subscriber growth remained strong, data consumption surged to world-leading levels, and operators doubled down on network expansion and modernisation. Yet beneath the headline resilience, familiar structural challenges—high debt, limited pricing power, and monetisation uncertainty—continue to loom large as the sector looks toward 2026.

2025: Year of Consolidation

By most operational measures, 2025 was a solid year for Indian telecom. Subscriber additions continued across both mobility and broadband, driven by rising smartphone penetration, affordable data tariffs, and rapid digital adoption across urban and rural India. The industry now serves well over 1.1 billion wireless subscribers, cementing India's position as the world's second-largest telecom market by user base.

Data usage remained the most striking trend. India continued to rank among the highest globally in average monthly data consumption per user, a reflection of affordable tariffs and the explosion of video, gaming, payments, and cloud-based applications. According to industry estimates, average data usage per smartphone crossed 30 GB per month in 2025 and is on a steep upward curve.