Is Jio AirFiber’s FWA Revolution the Lifeline for India’s Struggling Broadband connectivity?

In September 2024, Reliance Jio achieved a significant milestone, surpassing two million subscribers for its Fixed Wireless service, Jio AirFiber, within just one year of its launch. This impressive start signals the transformative potential of Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) technology in reshaping India's connectivity landscape. With an ambitious goal of reaching 100 million FWA and fiber subscribers, and planning to add  one million new users per month, Reliance is tapping into a vast opportunity in a market where broadband penetration remains surprisingly low. India’s Broadband Suffers from Critical Underdevelopment India’s broadband infrastructure can best be described as underwhelming. For over a decade, the country has struggled with delays, beginning with the National Broadband Plan (2004-2010), which set an ambitious goal of reaching 10 million fiber connections by 2010. This target, however, was only achieved in mid-2020, underscoring the significant lag in India's broadband development. While fiber deployment has accelerated in recent years, reaching an impressive average of 101,550 kilometers of fiber network built per month, the accumulated delay continues to hinder India's progress. And the government remains significantly behind on its fiber penetration goals. One clear example is fiber penetration to telecom towers, which remained at less than 40% in 2023, well short of the government’s target of 70% by 2024-2025. In 2024, India’s wireline broadband penetration stands at just 13% of households, keeping the country well behind emerging markets like Brazil, South Africa, Thailand, and Mexico, which have expanded their broadband networks more efficiently. Despite India’s large population and strong economy, the deployment of sufficient connectivity infrastructure across its vast geography remains a significant challenge, especially with 65% of the population living in rural areas, making it harder to connect. Projections by Dataxis indicate that India could reach 103 million FTTx subscribers by 2029, with an additional 100 million subscribers expected by 2034, surpassing 200 million FTTx subscribers in total. However, the overall pace of wired broadband penetration remains slow. Complicating matters is the rapid growth in the number of households, which may dilute the impact of expanded fiber coverage and further hinder broadband penetration. By 2029, wired broadband penetration is expected to reach only 25%. Fiber Deployment Struggles to Heal India’s Connectivity India's fiber deployment faces persistent challenges, primarily due to high costs, regulatory complexities, and limited infrastructure sharing among telecom operators. Major players like Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel have significantly advanced fiber networks, but smaller operators such as BSNL and ACT have struggled to keep pace.  The high cost of fiber deployment in less populated regions, combined with low return on investment, discourages rapid expansion by smaller operators. Additionally, regulatory hurdles, including the need for multiple approvals, delay the process and increase costs. Infrastructure sharing offers...