India

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How to get a phone number for texting India?

1. Sign up on our website.
2. Fill up the balance in a convenient way.
3. Select the service from which you want to receive SMS.
4. Indicate the purchased number during SMS activation.
5. Receive SMS in the “Active orders” tab.

Learn more about the country and popular services

India, a country of more than 1.4 billion people, is one of the largest and fastest growing digital markets in the world. Telephony and social media use are growing rapidly thanks to the availability of smartphones, cheap mobile internet, and a young population that is actively embracing digital technologies.

India's Telephony

India has one of the largest telecommunications markets in the world. As of 2024, the country has more than 1.15 billion mobile connections, which is about 81% of the population. Of these, 881 million are active mobile internet users, making India the second-largest smartphone market after China. The average mobile internet speed increased to 40.98 Mbps in 2024 due to the widespread adoption of 4G and the gradual rollout of 5G. The total data consumption in India reached 17.36 exabytes in 2023, indicating a massive dependence on mobile technology.

Major telecommunications companies:

• Reliance Jio is the market leader with a 39.7% share (over 470 million subscribers). Jio revolutionized the market by offering free 4G in 2016 and is now actively rolling out 5G, covering 85% of 5G traffic in India.
• Bharti Airtel is the second-largest operator with 326 million subscribers (27.5% of the market). Airtel offers 4G and 5G, as well as fixed-line services through Airtel Black.
• Vodafone Idea (Vi) - has 219 million subscribers (18.5% of the market). Despite financial difficulties, Vi remains an important player, offering 4G and testing 5G.
• BSNL - a state-owned operator with 93 million subscribers. Although it lags behind in 4G, it is actively working to expand coverage.

Mobile internet in India is one of the cheapest in the world: 1 GB of data costs an average of $0.17. This is contributing to the massive use of smartphones for education, work, entertainment and shopping, especially in rural areas where access to fixed-line internet is limited.

Social Media

India is one of the largest social media markets in the world. In 2024, 659.3 million people (46.5% of the population) actively used social media, spending an average of 2 hours and 36 minutes a day on it. The growth in the number of users (by 10.5% per year) is explained by access to cheap internet and the popularity of video content.

Popular platforms:

• YouTube is the leader with 475 million users. India is the largest market for YouTube, where the platform is used for entertainment, education, and news, especially in regions with different languages (it supports 11 languages).
• Instagram is the second most popular with 362 million users. It is popular among young people (18–34 years old) for sharing photos, videos and following influencers.
• Facebook - has 315 million users. Although growth has slowed, the platform remains important for older audiences, business, and news.
• WhatsApp - a key messenger with 535 million users. It is used for communication, business (WhatsApp Business), and even political campaigns.
• TikTok - had 200 million users before the ban in 2020. After the ban, its niche was occupied by local counterparts, such as MX TakaTak and Instagram Reels.

Other platforms, such as Telegram (over 100 million users) and ShareChat (a local platform for regional languages), are also popular. LinkedIn is heavily used for professional networking (over 100 million users), and Twitter (X) has 27.3 million accounts, but its growth has slowed.

India has a high level of telephony, with operators such as Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea providing cheap and fast internet, including 4G and 5G. Social media is dominated by YouTube, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Facebook, which are used for communication, entertainment, business, and information sharing. While the TikTok ban and data privacy concerns pose challenges, India remains a key digital market with huge growth potential.