Telecom tariffs were increased by a singificant margin in July 2024. This led to an uptick in the average revenue per user (ARPU) for the telcos, which in turn meant better financial health. While the ARPUs have gone up, have they converted into any value for the customer? The network service quality that Indians recieve today has to be better than where it was a few years ago to justify the price increase. Has that happened? Let's find out. While we don't have our own data sets to refer to for speed measuring, there's enough data available from credible platforms like Opensignal, Ookla, and TRAI. For now, we are referring to the data from Ookla as it is very simple to understand for everyone.
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India Witnesses Speed Upgrades as Networks Expand and Become Faster!
India has witnessed speed upgrades over the last few years. Taking the data from Ookla, the platform said that in 2020, India had an average mobile download speed of 12.8 Mbps and mobile upload speeds of about 4.5 Mbps, ranking around 130th globally. In 2025, India ranks 21st, as per the latest data, and the average mobile download speed has gone up to 138.34 Mbps.
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The best part is that while the tariffs have gone up, the coverage and speeds have too. Airtel has invested money into scaling networks in rural India, and then Vi is now using the money it has raised to scale networks.
It is very hard to pinpoint every customer's mood and experience and suggest whether they are getting value for money or not. But one thing is for sure, telcos have upped their game in the last few years when it comes to services which includes not just the network speed or coverage, but also other things such as customer support, SIM delivery, and more.
