Lockdown Increases Demand For Mobile Data And FTTH Services

Covid-19 restrictions have increased demand for mobile phone data and fiber-to-home services in the country. Industry sources state that internet consumption has been increased between 50 to 60 percent from the last two months.

"There has been a sharp increase in demand in FTTH by consumers as work from home is declared in most companies and families now depend on the internet more than ever," said Rajesh Chharia, president of the Internet Service Providers' Association of India.

In addition, Airtel said that they are fully prepared to fulfill all requirements of their customers and its team is working on the same. The telecom operator states that it is offering its FTTH services in 200 cities and ships 1 Gbps speed on demand. Besides, all telecom operators said that internet demands also depend on location.

"Metros like Delhi and Mumbai, which have seen many migrants moving back to their home states, are seeing a data spike of about 10 percent. But there is a 15 percent increase in data consumption in states like Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, and Bihar, where a large chunk of the migrants come from," senior telecom executive was quoted by ET.

Notably, several states have imposed lockdown and other restrictions due to COVID-19, which is why telecom operators are facing a drop in recharges as retail shops are closed. Similarly, TRAI said that internet subscribers in India have been increased from 776.45 million to 795.18 million at the end of December 2020. The data said that wired internet stands at 25.54 million users, whereas wireless users stood at 769.64 million.

Reliance Jio, Airtel, And Vi Invests Rs. 9,000 Crores In The Infrastructure

Reliance Jio, Airtel, and Vodafone-Idea have invested Rs. 9,000 crores in expanding the network infrastructure. This investment has been used in upgrading telecom sites and laying fibre to offer proper internet services during the lockdown.

In fact, there are high chances that additional spectrum will help all telecom operators to increase network capacity. Besides, the Department of Telecommunication has assigned frequencies to Airtel and Reliance Jio. These assigned frequencies will help telecom operators to improve the quality of services. The ministry also said that both telecom operators paid Rs. 2,306.97 crores for these frequencies.