Clear signals for Bharti Airtel, Reliance Jio: Dial into a future of growth

India leads as the highest data consumption market globally, with a per-capita consumption of 25 gigabytes per month

India’s telecommunications (telecom) scenario effectively constitutes a duopoly, with Reliance Jio (Jio) and Bharti Airtel (Airtel) holding a combined revenue market share of 78 per cent. The third private operator, Vodafone Idea (Vi), lags with 16 per cent, and Bharat Sanchar Nigam (BSNL) holds the rest.

Jio (460 million) and Airtel (376 million) boast 836 million subscribers.

Jio and Airtel are likely to pull further ahead. Both have already rolled out 5G networks and claim a combined 125 million 5G users. Vi is yet to roll out 5G, and BSNL has just started the 4G roll-out. Any subscriber upgrading from