Telecom

Jio, Airtel Corner Broadband Gains, Stranded ISPs Eye Platform Lifeline

Pratap Vikram Singh

June 04, 2025 | 9 Min Read

As India's home broadband market doubles, local ISPs face stagnation, consolidation pressures, and investor hesitancy in a two-player battlefield. Can they survive by coming together as a platform? Read on:

Key Takeaways

While India is the fastest-growing country in home broadband, internet service providers are either stagnant or shrinking
Jio and Airtel are battling for the lion’s share of the fixed broadband subscriber base, which is expected to grow to 90–100 million in the coming years
Private equity firms remain hesitant to fund non-telco broadband companies, unwilling to play in a market dominated by two giants
Investment bankers are proposing a platform play involving the decoupling of fibre infrastructure and service layers to attract suitors

India’s home broadband market has never been better, but the local internet service providers (ISPs) have little to cheer.

While India’s home broadband market is booming, with household connections doubling in four years, the ISPs have struggled. And while the broadband market is expected to double again in the next four to five years, the market share of local ISPs is expected to fall from approximately 30% currently.

Promising growth stories not long ago, ISPs—the likes of ACT and Excitel, which rely on bandwidth bought from telecom operators for distribution to end-users—have in recent times found themselves stuck with a stagnant subscriber base and lacklustre revenue growth, that too, in a rapidly growing market.

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