Cable TV
Wireless to fuel broadband growth in India: seminar
MUMBAI: Concerted efforts should be made to foster faster growth in broadband and increase telephony penetration into the rural areas, telecom experts at a seminar in Mumbai said.
India has a very low broadband penetration and it is wireless which will fuel the growth, Essar Teleholdings president Ajay Madan said, while speaking at a two-day international communications convergence on “Connecting India – The Global Challenge.”
“The fixed line has as low as under four per cent copper penetration and private telecom operators have not found the solution yet. Broadband through cable TV is also not much as the sector is highly unorganised. India will have to find the answer through wireless,” Madan said.
DSL is the driver for broadband penetration except in US and Canada where cable is strong. Broadband subscriptions by DSL account for 61 per cent across the globe while cable grabs 32 per cent of the share and others make up the balance seven per cent.
In Korea, there is a competitive ADSL provider (Hanaro) while cable and wireless providers also have a strong presence and wide coverage in the market. Korea also has wireless broadband at a low cost of $15 a month. Similarly, Japan has a high broadband penetration as the scenario is very competitive with over 50 ADSL providers.
“In high fixed line economies, broadband will grow. Content and the services sector are also driving broadband,” said Madan.
India needs to take several steps even as the next generation broadband with video-on-demand (VoD), interactive TV, games, remote access to work and video conference applications hogging bandwidth. “Streamlining rights-of-way clearance, reducing leased line price, and dropping artificial regulatory costs are some of the measures which have to be taken,” Madan said.
Speaking at the plenary session on “India Empowered,” Ericsson India general manager – technical Bo Ribbing elaborated on how connectivity could benefit the common man. “The challenge is to reach out to the segments below $5 in India. But there are some positive changes which have taken place to breach this low-spending subscriber segment. The cost of terminal is coming down and is expected to further fall from $35 to $25 range by next year,” he said.
Also speaking on the occasion was telecom analyst, strategy and policy unit, ITU, Geneva, Lara Srivastava. “The telecom industry is in a stage of transition and is moving from divergence to convergence markets. Mobile has taken over fixed lines. In 2004, mobile subscribers stood at 1.75 billion while fixed line had 1.19 billion users,” she said.
In India, the number of new mobile subscribers each month for the period 1995-2001 went up from 0.05 to 0.1 million a month. “This has scaled up progressively and 4.5 million new subscribers were added in the month of December last year, proving that mobile teledensity is leading the way here,” Srivastava said.
Former Tata Consultancy Services deputy chairman FC Kohli expressed two concerns – absence of a hardware computer industry and need for developing a security architecture for internet. “About 60 per cent of the e-mail is spam. Internet has no inherent security architecture. There is an opportunity for India to do research in this and develop the next generation of internet,” Kohli said.
The seminar addressed other issues like the challenges and opportunities of increasing connectivity. Among the top speakers included SingTel India country director Arun Dagar, Asia Pacific Telecommunity executive director Amarendra Narayan and IIT professor Dr Ashok Jhunjhunwala.
Cable TV
Hathway Cable appoints Gurjeev Singh Kapoor as CEO
Leadership change comes as cable TV faces shrinking subscriber base and modest earnings pressure
MUMBAI: Hathway Cable and Datacom has tapped industry veteran Gurjeev Singh Kapoor as chief executive officer, marking a leadership pivot at a time when India’s cable television business is under mounting strain.
Kapoor will take over from Tavinderjit Singh Panesar, who is set to retire in August after a long innings with the company. Panesar, chief executive since 2023, has held multiple leadership roles at Hathway, including his latest stint beginning in 2022.
Kapoor brings more than three decades of experience in media and entertainment. He most recently led distribution at The Walt Disney Company’s Star India business, now part of JioStar. His career spans television distribution and affiliate partnerships, with stints at Sony Pictures Networks India, Discovery Communications and Zee Entertainment.
Panesar, with over three decades in the industry, has worked across strategic planning, distribution and business development in media, broadcasting and manufacturing. His past associations include ESPN Star Sports, Star India, Apollo Tyres and JK Industries.
The transition lands as the cable sector grapples with structural disruption. Traditional operators are losing ground to streaming platforms, while telecom and broadband players tighten the squeeze with bundled offerings.
An EY report estimates India’s pay-TV base could shrink by a further 30 to 40 million households by 2030, taking the total down to 71 to 81 million. The slide follows a loss of nearly 40 million homes between 2018 and 2024, a contraction that has already wiped out more than 37,000 jobs in the local cable operator ecosystem.
Hathway’s numbers reflect the strain. The company reported a consolidated net profit of Rs 93 crore for FY25, down from Rs 99 crore a year earlier. Revenue inched up to Rs 2,040 crore from Rs 1,981 crore. As of December 2025, it had about 4.7 million cable TV subscribers and roughly 1.02 million broadband users.
Kapoor steps in with a familiar brief but a shrinking playbook. In a market where viewers are cutting cords faster than companies can reinvent them, the new chief executive inherits a business fighting to stay plugged in.
