Data surge, 4G transition lift telecom firms out of Covid-19 blues

The last of the five-part series looks at the sector that was relatively unaffected by the Covid-induced lockdown

Unlike most other sectors, telecom services has seen a lower impact from the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic and is also among the early ones to recover. A surge in data consumption and a rebound in new subscriber base are the major gains for the sector.

S P Kochhar, director general of Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), has highlighted this trend. “Network activity increased due to limitation of movement, logistics and distribution, leading to higher data consumption. The average monthly consumption of data per subscriber has gone up 20 per cent from 10.37 GB to 12.4 GB from September 2019 to