The total fixed communication services market in India will remain fairly resilient during the COVID-19 crisis in 2020 and the segment’s revenues are poised to grow at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 4.6% from US$6.1bn in 2020 to US$7.7bn in 2025, driven by growth in fixed broadband services segment, according to GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.

GlobalData’s India Telecom Operators Country Intelligence Report reveals that fixed broadband revenues will increase at a CAGR of 6.9% over 2020-2025 in line with steady rise in broadband average revenue per user (ARPU) due to growing consumer adoption of higher value broadband plans to support their growing consumption of high-bandwidth data services over fixed networks.

Projected growth in the fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) subscriptions due to the government efforts to expand fiber-optic broadband connectivity to over 600,000 villages nationwide by 2022 will further support the growth.

On the other hand, fixed voice revenue in India will drop at a CAGR of 1.9% during 2020-2025, due to drop in circuit switched subscriptions and decline in voice ARPU levels over the forecast period.

Deepa Dhingra, Telecom Analyst at GlobalData, says: “Though DSL is the primary technology to deliver fixed broadband services in 2020 in India, fiber broadband lines will expand at the fastest CAGR of 15.3% over the forecast period. Growth in fiber broadband lines will be driven by the focus on expansion of fiber-network infrastructure by the government and operators like Reliance Jio.

“BSNL will lead the fixed voice and broadband segments in 2020 essentially due to its strong foothold in circuit-switched and VoIP services segments as well as in DSL broadband services segment. BSNL has been promoting monthly DSL broadband packages with unlimited voice minutes to drive its subscription share in the fixed broadband market.”