Internet in India, which began in 1986 with access only to the educational and research community and on 15 August 1995 with access to the general public. In 2025, India has over 1 billion internet users. As of 2025, 7 in 10 Indians are now online, with 70% internet penetration. It is reported that in 2022 an average mobile Internet consumption in India was 19.5GB per month and the mobile data usage per month rose from 4.5 exabytes in 2018 to 14.4 exabytes in 2022. The Indian Government has embarked on initiatives such as Digital India, BharatNet, Common Service Centres, UPI instant payment system, Startup India, and others to further expedite the growth of internet-based ecosystems.
History
1986: Early days and ERNET In 1986, the history of the Internet in India began with the launch of the Educational Research Network (ERNET), The network was made available only to educational and research communities. even though the early pre-internet computer networks were operated in India since the late 1970s by the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation and the Indian Military. along with general-use computer networks such as INDONET, NICNET, and VIKRAM. ERNET was initiated by the Department of Electronics (DoE), with funding from the Government of India and United Nations Development Program (UNDP), involving eight premier institutions as participating agencies—NCST Bombay, Indian Institute of Science, five Indian Institutes of Technology (Delhi, Mumbai, Kanpur, Kharagpur and Chennai), and the DoE in New Delhi. ERNET began as a multi protocol network with both the TCP/IP and the OSI-IP protocol stacks running over the leased-line portion of the backbone. Since 1995, however, almost all traffic is carried over TCP/IP. In 1990, the ERNET was allotted Class B IP address 144.16.0.0 by NIC (then InterNIC). Subsequently, Class C addresses were allotted to ERNET by APNIC. In January 1991, the first leased line of 9.6 kbit/s was installed in January 1991 between Delhi and Mumbai. In 1992, all IITs, IISc Bangalore, DOE Delhi and NCST Mumbai were connected by 9.6 kbit/s leased line, 64 kbit/s Internet gateway link was commissioned from NCST Mumbai to UUNet in Virginia in United States. In 1995, NICNet was established for communications between government institutions. The network was operated by the National Informatics Centre.
1995: Public internet in India On 15 August 1995, the first publicly available internet service in India was launched by state-owned Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited (VSNL). At the time, VSNL had a monopoly over international communications in the country and private enterprise was not permitted in the sector. The internet service, known as the Gateway Internet Access Service (GIAS), provided a speed of 9.6 kbit/s speed and was priced at ₹5,200 for 250 hours for individuals, ₹16,200 for institutional dial-up SLIP/PPP accounts, and higher for leased line services. However, for the next 10 years, the Internet experience in the country remained less attractive, with narrow-band connections having speeds less than 56 kbit/s (dial-up). In 1997, Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) access was introduced.
2004: Broadband In 2004, the government formulated its broadband policy, which defined broadband as "an always-on Internet connection with a download speed of 256 kbit/s or above." Since 2005, the growth of the broadband sector in the country accelerated but remained below the growth estimates of the government and related agencies due to resource issues in last-mile access, which were predominantly wired-line technologies.
2010: Wireless broadband In 2010, to improve the internet speed and remove the speed bottleneck of wired-line, the government pushed for the wireless mobile by auctioning the 3G spectrum, followed by 4G spectrum auction, that set the scene for a competitive and invigorated wireless broadband market. In 2013, the minimum speed requirement for broadband connection was set as 512 kbit/s. This requirement was further raised to 2 Mbit/s in 2023. In 2020, WANI (Prime Minister Wi-Fi Access Network Interface) policy India was launched, aimed at increasing internet connectivity especially in rural areas and enhancing the proliferation of public Wi-Fi hotspots across the country by creating a robust decentralized digital communications infrastructure with Public Data Offices (PDOs) operating, maintaining, and delivering broadband services to subscribers through Wi-Fi access points or routers.
2016: Reliance Jio and the digital explosion On 5 September 2016, Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited commercially launched an all-IP 4G network built on Voice over LTE (VoLTE) technology, skipping legacy 2G/3G infrastructure entirely. The launch disrupted the Indian telecommunications market by offering free voice calls and free high-speed 4G data during its initial promotional periods. Afterwards, prices were set at roughly ₹10–₹50 per GB, which was over 90% cheaper than prevailing rates. This led to the rapid onboarding of over 100 million subscribers within 170 days. This drastic drop in mobile data prices triggered a period of rapid digital transformation across India, often referred to as the "Jio Effect".
2023: 5G and 6G Since 2023, 5G was driving India's internet speed. The 6G innovation is driven by India's indigenous government and industry alliance Bharat 6G Alliance (B6GA)
Technologies
Wireless Internet The following frequencies are used to provide wireless Internet services in India:
2G : GSM 900 MHz, GSM 1800 MHz 3G : WCDMA UMTS 2100 MHz, 900 MHz 4G : TD-LTE 2300 MHz, 2500 MHz, FD-LTE 2100 MHz, 1800 MHz, 900 MHz, 850 MHz CDMA : 800 MHz (for 1x voice and data & EVDO Rev A, Rev B, Rev B Phase II data) 5G :
Wired Internet Fixed-line or wired Internet technologies used in India include digital subscriber line, (DSL), Dial-up Internet access, Ethernet and local area network (LAN), Cable modem, fibre to the home, and leased line.
Internet services
Internet user base India has the second highest number of Internet users in the world. The following table provides an overview of Internet subscriber statistics in India as on 30 September 2023.
… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.
