As of August 31, 2020 the number of internet connections in India has breached a significant milestone of 75 crore in its history of 25 years from the time it was open to the public on August 15, 1995. Also, the network subscriber has doubled in the last four years from 34 crore in March 2016. 

The majority of 75+ crore subscribers are from urban areas and utilizes the wireless network such as mobile phones and dongles. As per the latest information from the TRAI, “By the end of June 2020, there were 749 million (74.9 crore) internet connections — narrowband (50.8 million or 5-cr) and broadband (698.2 million or 69.2-cr) together.”

Lt Gen (retd) SP Kochhar, director general, Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), told TOI: “...While we have 97% of our broadband connections on mobiles, adequate network coverage of the population is still hovering around 50%, which has to increase. There has to be more network rollouts, it must be affordable while quality of service must also be ensured.”

Professor Debabrata Das from IIIT-B, who was an integral part of the Centre’s National Information Infrastructure version 2.0 (NII 2.0), says: “That internet is a game-changer has been reiterated by the pandemic (Covid-19), even amidst which many small businesses managed to work. That aside, access to education, finance and healthcare was enabled by the internet, and I think it won’t be an exaggeration to say it’s now an essential commodity.”