1GB data cheaper than a cup of tea today: PM

One gigabyte of mobile data in India now costs less than a cup of tea, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Wednesday as he challenged the country to become a reliable global supplier of telecommunications equipment.

- Sejal Sharma

"This is the best time to invest, innovate and make in India," Modi told delegates at the India Mobile Congress, referencing his signature manufacturing initiative whilst joking about his habit of mentioning tea, a nod to his origins as a tea seller when he was a young boy.

The PM used the four-day event at Yashobhoomi Convention Centre to announce that India has joined an exclusive group of five nations—alongside Denmark, Sweden, South Korea and China—capable of producing indigenous telecommunications network technology.

Communications minister Jyotiraditya Scindia said mobile data costs have plummeted 98% over the past 11 years, from ₹287 per gigabyte in 2014 to ₹9 today, helping connect 944 million broadband users—up from 60 million in 2014—across the world's second-largest telecom market.

"There was a time when a single minute of voice was a luxury," Scindia said in his inaugural address. India transformed from "a technology taker and technology follower to now the digital flagbearer of the world", with 1.2 billion mobile subscribers representing 20% of the global mobile population, he added.