India fixed communication market revenue to hit $13.9 bn in 2027: Report

India’s fixed communication services revenue is expected to touch USD 13.9 billion in 2027 growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 6.4% from USD 10.2 billion in 2022 driven by the strong growth in the fixed broadband segment, data and analytics firm GlobalData said Wednesday.

The firm’s India Fixed Communications Forecast for the January-March 2023 estimated that fiber optic lines will hold over 85% of total broadband lines in 2027 in India with fiber optic service revenue growing at a CAGR of 9.2% for the 2022-2027 period.

“Rising demand for high-speed internet services and competitively priced fiber broadband plans from operators with benefits like unlimited internet and access to major SVoD (subscription video on demand) platforms are expected to drive fiber broadband service adoption in India during the forecast period,” Srikanth Vaidya, telecom analyst at GlobalData

Reliance Jio is expected to capture maximum subscription market share in the fixed broadband services market in India over the forecast period, supported by its efforts to upgrade its FTTH network. The operator’s promotional offers on its broadband plans are expected to help the company maintain its leadership in the market over the forecast period.

Jio recently announced competitively home broadband plans offering higher speed top-ups and entertainment packages with OTT subscriptions.

“Fixed broadband services revenue, will increase at a CAGR of 7.3% during 2022-2027, driven by the solid growth in broadband subscriptions, especially fiber broadband, and increasing broadband ARPU levels,” said Vaidya.

The report added that fixed voice services revenue will decline at a CAGR of 1% over 2022-2027 as circuit switched subscriptions drop and there is a decline in fixed voice average revenue per subscriber (ARPU) with increasing adoption of OTT-based communication services, and operators include free voice minutes with their fixed bundled plans.

A circuit switched connection or subscription involves a physical connection between hosts or connection points like in the case of traditional landlines.

In the case of cellular networks, 2G and 3G use circuit switching for voice and short messaging service (SMS) traffic while in 4G, the entire network uses packet switching (no physical connection needed) and has no capability for circuit switched network support.