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Highlights
- But follow we will no longer do, Scindia says on India’s approach to telecom standards.
- Voice tariffs have fallen from Rs 16 per minute in the 1990s to effectively free, Scindia says.
- Data costs have declined 97 per cent since 2014, from Rs 287 to about Rs 8 per GB.
Andrew Bonwick
Vice President of Product Development at Relm Insurance
Madhav Sheth
CEO of Ai+ Smartphone
Stephen Rose
CEO Render Networks
Communications Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia on Monday said access with affordability should be a right across every industry, pointing to the sharp fall in voice and data tariffs and the exponential rise in internet and broadband users as evidence of how India has expanded its digital access, according to a PTI report dated October 6, 2026.
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Voice, Data Costs Fall as Digital Access Expands
Scindia reportedly said voice call rates have fallen from Rs 16 per minute in the 1990s to becoming free, while data costs have dropped 97 per cent from Rs 287 per GB in 2014 to about Rs 8 per GB currently.
Internet users have grown from about 250 million to more than 1.1 billion today, while broadband connections have crossed the one-billion mark, he reportedly said.
“That is not additive. That is multiplicative, and that is what we have been able to do in India. Access with affordability has to be a right in every vertical, in every industry across the length and breadth of our country. And telecom has shown the path, has shown the way,” the Minister reportedly said while addressing the Indian Foundation for Quality Management (IFQM) Symposium 2026.
Scindia said technology was a dependent variable and could only be an amplifier. “…Technology can only be an amplifier, and the ability of technology to have a multiplier effect depends on the quality of signal that is inputted into it as an amplifier,” he reportedly said.
