Regardless of the 5G network launch, users won’t ignore the benefits that fiber broadband brings to the table. India’s journey in the fiber broadband segment has just started. There’s still a long way to go for the country to get fiber access in every nook and corner. A report from Point Topic, a US-based analyst, suggests that India will see rapid growth in fiber broadband subscribers by the end of this decade. Indonesia is also expected to see major gains in the fiber broadband segment.
The report mentioned that India’s fiber subscriber trajectory is set to take off in 2025. Around 2028, India is expected to tie with the U.S. (United States) or surpass it in terms of the number of fiber subscribers. By 2030 India’s fiber subscriber count is expected to reach 110 million. It is worth noting that India’s figures are still comparatively very low as what is expected for China (523 million fiber subscribers).
Around the same time frame, the U.S. is expected to have around 80 million fiber subscribers, with Indonesia having 60 million and Brazil and Japan fighting for the fifth spot with around 40 million fiber subscribers.
RoW Rules to Make a Big Impact as Well
The central government in India is trying to modify the Right-of-Way (RoW) rules in every state to ensure that the telcos and the infrastructure providers (IPs) can deploy fiber faster. The numbers could be easily higher than what the Point Topic data suggests for India. but it will depend on the way the government, as well as the telecom sector, works towards deploying fiber in every part of the country.
This means that an uptick in the fiber business of JioFiber and Airtel Xstream Fiber is for sure in India. There are many regional internet service providers (ISPs) in the country as well, which are seeing rapid growth. Companies such as Excitel and ACT have made a solid business in the last few years.