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:

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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