Andrew Bonwick
Vice President of Product Development at Relm Insurance
Madhav Sheth
CEO of Ai+ Smartphone
Stephen Rose
CEO Render Networks


India is not a duopoly when it comes to telecom. There are still two more operators apart from Jio and Airtel that have more than 200 million users combined. However, Jio and Airtel have made the market in such a manner that it is almost a duopoly, but can’t be defined as one. Both the successful operators (Airtel and Jio), have high-speed broadband availability for customers in almost all parts and also have deep pockets to keep customers lured in with offers and quality.
Read More – Jio Added 7.91 Million Active Users in June 2025
Vodafone Idea (Vi) is not able to compete on a head-on manner due to declining business for years (the telco has been losing customers and has a huge chunk of 2G users in India, which are low paying). Apart from losing customers, Vi also has government and vendor dues. While the bank debt for Vi has reduced quite fast over the last two years, the telco has been unable to raise money via debt. Without raising money, it will be hard for Vi to sustain in the competiton.
Airtel, Jio Own 80% of the Broadband Market
According to the latest data from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio, together own 81.8% of the broadband market. Jio owns 50.74% of the market share while Airtel owns 31.06% share. This is combined broadband market, i.e., it includes both wireless and wireline. The data is for the month ending June 30, 2025 or Q1 FY26.