India’s broadband base is overwhelmingly wireless: of the 1080.15 million broadband connections in May 2026, only 47.40 million, less than 5 percent, were wireline. This unusually high mobile-fixed imbalance sets India apart from most countries, where the total volume of data on mobile networks is typically lower, not higher, than on fixed-line networks. While a mobile-first approach has enabled affordable access at scale and accelerated internet adoption in India, the absence of a complementary fixed-line backbone compromises quality and risks undermining productive end use, innovation, and more complex applications as networks mature. The high mobile-to-fixed ratio also has implications for network resilience, as mobile networks are more vulnerable to power outages and natural disasters than fixed networks.
Against this backdrop, this policy brief maps major policies and initiatives on fixed wireline connectivity across countries and translates these cross-country findings into targeted reforms for India’s fixed-mobile imbalance. On public funding, it argues that the core flaw in the Universal Service Obligation Fund (now the Digital Bharat Nidhi) is structural: a 5 percent operator levy routed through the Consolidated Fund creates a collection-disbursement gap, and it recommends a ringfenced, legislatively mandated transfer mechanism. It also calls for accelerating PM-WANI and anchor-institution connectivity (schools, health centres, panchayats), while addressing the affordability, awareness, and digital-skills gaps that suppress demand even where supply exists. On infrastructure, it argues for nationally accelerated copper-to-fibre conversion at BSNL/MTNL, faster Right of Way implementation at the municipal level, and demand-risk-sharing tools drawn from Chile and Peru. On competition and licensing, it highlights India’s telecom duopoly and the absence of an EU-style significant-market-power regime as barriers to fibre-sharing, and proposes mandatory wholesale access, a neutral reference interconnection offer, and an AGR levy offset for rural fibre capex. Finally, it addresses balancing fixed wireless as a complement to, rather than a substitute for, fixed wireline; harmonising state-level planning using subnational network-mix data that reveal acute imbalances in states such as Assam, Odisha, and Rajasthan; and technological and systems upgrades, including leveraging power-sector optical ground wire and strengthening network resilience against disasters and cyber threats.
