Despite global economic headwinds, India was the world’s fastest-growing major economy in 2024, growing at 8.2%. However, India’s household fixed broadband penetration sits at around 15% as of 1Q25, according to Telegeography. This is in line with other countries with a similar level of GDP per capita but well behind economies of a similar size. Mobile broadband remains the dominant Internet access technology for consumers, as fixed broadband accounts for less than 5% of total internet access.

India’s fixed broadband gap is largely due to the lack of last-mile infrastructure — particularly in rural areas, where more than 60% of the population lives. FWA is proving a fast, flexible, and affordable solution to expand access. Since the start of the year, FWA subscriptions have risen by a third to 7.4 million as of the end of May 2025, while wireline still comprises over 80% of all fixed broadband. Jio states that almost half of its FWA connections are coming from tier three and four cities and rural areas, while more than 70% of new connections are now coming from beyond the top 1,000 towns and cities. FWA is also growing in urban areas where fiber deployment is hindered by right of way issues.

Where wireline broadband networks are available, fiber-to-the-home is the dominant technology. The growth of fiber availability, mostly in better-off urban areas, has been driven by licensing rules that opened up wholesale access to the telco incumbents’ (BSNL, MTNL) networks, and mobile operators Jio and Airtel leveraging LCOs (Local Cable Operators) to install and maintain local fiber networks on their behalf. These small-scale LCOs once drove the expansion of cable TV. But legacy cable operators (MSOs, or Multi-System Operators) like GTPL have shifted to focusing on fiber-to-the-home for broadband and pay-TV access. Legacy cable TV struggles to compete with well-capitalized over-the-top video platforms like JioHotstar and Netflix.

The regional fiber operators are also gaining ground in our metrics, with Excitel winning four wireline awards in Andhra Pradesh, Delhi, and Karnataka, with Consistent Quality scores over 70% and download speeds over 88Mbps. Meanwhile combined cable/fiber player GTPL wins four wireline awards in Gujarat with much lower scores, as the two main players Airtel and Jio are focused on FWA rollout in this region.

FWA in India is enabling a solid experience, allowing broadband activities, like streaming and video calls without noticeable lag at least half of the time - as informed by our Consistent Quality metric results.

Of the two key FWA operators in India, Reliance-owned Jio is the largest by subscribers, with close to 6 million at the end of May 2025 (according to the regulator TRAI) – over 40% of its total fixed broadband subscriptions. Jio launched its JioAirFiber FWA service in 2023 – just days after key rival Airtel launched its own FWA offering. Airtel has over 1.5 million FWA subscribers, and is showing steeper growth than Jio, at 77% from January to May 2025. Interestingly, the rivals’ wireline subscriptions are virtually equal at 7.7 million each.

Jio has aggressively promoted its AirFiber 5G-based FWA services, with ambitious plans to increase its network coverage to 1 million homes monthly in 2025. Jio’s flagship Rs999 ($12) per month broadband plan promises 150 Mbps download speed with access to 15 major streaming platforms. The FWA modem (CPE) is included for free and is installed outside the property by an engineer, at a cost of Rs1000 – but this is waived for annual subscribers.

On the network side, Jio utilizes some unlicensed spectrum (in the 5GHz band), as well as licensed 5G spectrum (3.5GHz) to connect customers to FWA. The company claims this approach helps reduce deployment costs, making it easier to expand its network rapidly while significantly lowering the cost per customer. The 5G backbone is built on 5G standalone (SA) with network slicing technology separating the mobile and FWA elements. Despite these enhancements, Jio is struggling to match its rival Airtel in network experience.

Airtel also offers a range of high-tier fixed wireless broadband plans catering to customers seeking faster speeds and bundled entertainment. Their Rs899 plan promises 100 Mbps with no data cap along with 350 TV channels and access to local OTT content. Higher cost plans offer subscriptions to streaming platforms such Netflix and Amazon Prime, while their Rs1599 ($19) plan promises 300 Mbps download speeds.

Like Jio, Airtel is focused on building in cost-effective solutions to its network strategy, particularly leveraging mmWave spectrum technology, to overcome capacity constraints and continue the growth of FWA. Airtel also offers CPE installation for free on advance plans. The use of free installation and free equipment by both Jio and Airtel reflects their desire to subsidize new customers aggressively, especially given the significant wholesale costs of fixed wireless gateways.

Of India’s other main operators, state-backed BSNL has soft-launched 5G FWA services, dubbed ‘Quantum 5G FWA’, in parts of Hyderabad. The operator’s FWA footprint is expected to be extended to Bengaluru, Pondicherry, Visakhapatnam, Pune, Gwalior and Chandigarh by September 2025. Meanwhile mobile-only operator Vi recently launched 5G mobile services in Mumbai, and now plans to roll out 5G coverage to all 17 of its priority circles by August 2025. Vi is facing a financially challenging time, as it has been in discussions with investors and lenders for over a year to raise funds — and this instability is inevitably impacting its future plans, including any plans to expand into fixed broadband.

Plan characteristics — for example, speed tiers or data caps — vary greatly by provider and the dispersion of the plan mix will affect the average experience result. Opensignal’s measurements capture users’ experience, regardless of the plan that they have purchased from their provider. This report analyzes the real-world situation across all users’ plans. In this report we examine the fixed broadband experience of the key network operators in India over a period of 90 days starting on February 01, 2025, and ending on May 01, 2025, to see how they fared.