India's Telecom Boost Amid Pandemic

by Pankaj Pachauri Jul 15, 2020 • 08:13 PM Views 8490

Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, investments keep pouring in to boost India’s digital future. Google has become the latest big player to back top Indian telecom network Reliance Jio's platforms by investing $4.5 billion for a 7.73% stake. GoNews’ Editor-in-chief Pankaj Pachauri explains how this will influence the Indian economy and its digital future, also highlighting that rural India is still far from digital inclusion and that despite a decline of about 28 lakh phone subscribers within a month, how the Indian telecom sector has emerged as the strong growth engine for the Indian economy


In February 2020, total phone subscribers across the country stood at 1,180.84 million, which reduced to 1,177.97 million in March. That is a decline of about 28 lakh subcribers within a month. Of which, the figures went down from 661.23 million to 656.46 million within a month in Urban India, whereas the rural India only saw an increase in the number of subcribers from 519.62 million to 521.51 million as millions of migrants workers returned to their native amid the lockdown.

Meanwhile, in the February-March period, Reliance Jio got 46,87,369 new subscribers, whereas Vodafone-Idea suffered the maximum damage by losing 63,53,200 subscribers, followed by Bharti-Airtel which lost 12,61,952 subcribers in a month.

However, in terms of active subscribers, Bharti-Airtel has been the best among all subscribers with a percentage of 96.18%.