India's telecom journey is not just a story of better phones. It is the story of how connectivity evolved from scarce landlines and dial-up internet to mobile data, video calls, high-speed streaming, and the 5G networks of today, with 6G already on the horizon.
Back in the early 1990s, telephone access in India was limited, with landlines often difficult to obtain. The National Telecom Policy 1994 sought to bridge this connectivity gap by opening the sector to greater private participation and expanding telephone access across urban and rural India. The licensing framework was subsequently reshaped through the New Telecom Policy 1999 , which introduced a revenue-sharing regime and helped create a more sustainable environment for telecom operators. This helped create a more sustainable environment for telecom companies and laid the foundation for the sector's subsequent expansion.
