Indian Minister Said Country Grew Broadband Subscribers From 60 Million to 1 Billion in a Decade

BARCELONA, March 7, 2026 — India has executed one of the fastest 5G expansions in the world, its communications minister said Tuesday at Mobile World Congress, describing a decade of connectivity investment that has reshaped how more than a billion people access the internet.

Jyotiraditya Scindia, India's minister of communications for the northeastern region, said the country deployed 500,000 base stations at a cost of $4 billion, covering 99.9 percent of its districts.

Some 400 million of India's 1.2 billion mobile subscribers are already on 5G networks, a figure he projected would surpass 1 billion by 2030, he said.