Founded in 2015, Excitel Broadband has rapidly emerged as a key player in India’s fiber broadband market. With a subscriber base exceeding 1 million across 55+ cities, including Hyderabad, New Delhi, Bangalore, Vijayawada, and Lucknow, the company has achieved an impressive annual turnover of over Rs 450 crores. Excitel aims to scale its revenue to Rs 600 crores in FY 2024-25 and sustain its robust valuation of Rs 2,000 crores. Spearheaded by Vivek Raina, Founder and CEO, Excitel is also working on launching Excitel TV, which is in beta trials across North India. This innovative service seeks to transition millions of Indian homes from traditional cable TV to state-of-the-art fiber-based TV services, seamlessly integrating broadcast television with OTT platforms and enhancing broadband penetration across the nation. In a recent conversation with Tech Achieve Media, Vivek Raina shared Excitel’s ambitious growth plans, highlighting their commitment to expanding broadband penetration and introducing transformative services
TAM: What do you attribute as the key factors behind the company’s success so far? What has your approach been to customer acquisition and retention?
Vivek Raina: India ranks near the bottom globally when it comes to wireline broadband penetration. While we’ve excelled in mobile internet with approximately 70 crore Indians accessing mobile broadband, only 4 crore homes, out of a population of 170 crore, are connected to wireline broadband.
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I’ve been working in this field since the beginning of my career. After completing my MBA, my first job was with Hathway, which led the first wireline broadband deployment in the country. Over the years, across roles in various telcos like Reliance and DigiCable, the challenge of low wireline broadband penetration has been a consistent issue.
In 2010-11, I partnered with co-founders from Bulgaria, a country that transformed its wireline broadband penetration from nearly zero to 70%. Together, we analyzed the barriers preventing India from achieving similar growth. The key insights were:
- Unstructured Urban Areas:
About 70% of urban India is unstructured, with haphazard development, leaving only 30% well-planned. Deploying fiber in structured areas is straightforward due to back lanes and utility shafts. However, in unstructured areas, running fiber is complex, costly, and unsustainable. Traditional ISPs and telcos have largely ignored these regions, leaving millions digitally excluded. - Changing Internet Access Patterns:
A decade ago, internet access was tied to desktops or laptops, which were uncommon in lower-income areas. Today, smartphones have democratized internet access, becoming the primary device for connectivity across all socioeconomic groups. - Evolving Needs:
Earlier, internet speeds were 512 kbps to 1 Mbps, primarily supporting productivity tasks like email and research. However, most people seek entertainment at home, not work-related activities. This shift required reimagining broadband as a source of entertainment, with speeds sufficient for streaming, gaming, and other content consumption.
This understanding led to the founding of Excitel Broadband, focused on delivering high-speed, affordable internet to both structured and unstructured urban areas. Our approach included:
- Offering minimum speeds of 20 Mbps when the market norm was much lower.
- Removing FUP (Fair Usage Policy) limits to ensure unlimited access, much like cable TV.
- Pricing packages affordably, starting at Rs 500 for unlimited data.
Our initial target was to achieve 30,000 connections in the first year. Internally, we aimed for 40,000–50,000. Instead, we reached 1 lakh connections. Today, we serve over 10 lakh connections across over 55 cities.
Our vision was simple: make wireline broadband a primary source of entertainment and bring world-class connectivity to every corner of urban India, regardless of structure. This strategy has been the cornerstone of our success.
TAM: Excitel operates in a highly competitive space dominated by giants. What are the unique selling propositions (USPs) that help you stand out in this crowded market?
Vivek Raina: Our primary goal has always been to deliver high-speed, world-class fiber-to-home internet to the unstructured parts of urban India—areas that previously lacked access to reliable, high-quality internet. These regions had only limited copper-based, landline internet services provided by local operators. In comparison, what we introduced was unmatched in terms of technology and performance.
We made this cutting-edge service accessible at an affordable price because we always aimed to cater to the masses, not just niche markets. From the beginning, we priced our service competitively, aligning it with what people were used to paying for cable TV. When we launched, our base package offered 20 Mbps for Rs 500. Today, we provide 200 Mbps for the same Rs 500, but the key factor is not just the speed—it’s maintaining affordability while delivering exceptional quality.
Third-party platforms like Ookla, which measure internet speed and service performance globally, consistently rank us as the fastest broadband provider in the areas we operate. In cities like Delhi and Bangalore, we lead the market because we don’t compromise on speed—our base offering starts at 200 Mbps.
This focus on high-speed internet for the unstructured parts of urban India is not just about entertainment or convenience; it’s about unlocking the economic potential of the country. Studies, such as one conducted by the World Bank, show a direct correlation between broadband penetration and GDP growth. A 10% increase in broadband penetration can lead to a 1.5% to 2% rise in GDP.
Wireline broadband plays a crucial role in empowering individuals and businesses to work efficiently and productively. Unlike mobile internet, which is often used for casual communication and non-serious activities, broadband is the backbone for businesses and serious work.
At Excitel Broadband, we’re committed to doing our part to bridge this digital divide and contribute to the country’s economic growth. By bringing affordable, high-speed internet to underserved areas, we’re helping to unlock opportunities and drive progress.
TAM: How does Excitel manage to maintain affordability without compromising on service quality, especially in urban and semi-urban areas?
Vivek Raina: The truth is, it doesn’t cost much more than that for anyone to provide quality internet services. In today’s world, 90% of the content users consume comes from major content providers like Netflix, Amazon, Google, YouTube, and others. These providers ensure their content is co-located with you, meaning it’s delivered at a very minimal cost. Only a small fraction of the content is delivered via dedicated leased lines (ILL), which incurs additional expenses.
Most providers could make their services affordable, but they focus on maintaining higher price points to increase their ARPUs (Average Revenue Per User). This is why they offer expensive packages priced at Rs 1,000 or Rs 1,500.
At Excitel Broadband, we take a different approach. We are committed to being mass-market players with highly competitive plans starting at just Rs 500. Unlike others, we don’t have legacy issues—many of these providers have been charging high prices for decades and are reluctant to break away from those pricing structures.
TAM: Can you share insights into Excitel’s expansion strategy, particularly in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities? And even Southern states?
Vivek Raina: The growth of broadband services often follows a wired expansion model. The process involves strategically laying physical wires and establishing a strong network presence.
Typically, you start by focusing on a major city—for instance, Kanpur. Once you’ve established a robust network in a large city like Kanpur, you can expand to nearby smaller towns and Tier III or Tier IV towns. The key is to first build a solid foundation in the main city, ensuring sufficient network capacity, before gradually spreading outward to surrounding areas.
For example, now that we’ve built a strong presence in Delhi, we’ve extended our services to several smaller towns nearby. It’s a natural progression—spreading to 5 or 8 smaller towns around the hub city. The same approach applies to Hyderabad, where our strength has enabled us to serve many towns across Telangana, such as Rishabh Shahbaz and others.
This expansion strategy continues to work for us, and we plan to replicate it in Bangalore. Currently, we have around 100,000 users in Bangalore, and our next step is to extend our reach to nearby towns. That’s the roadmap we are following.
TAM: Currently focused on residential broadband services, does Excitel have plans to tap into the enterprise broadband market?
Vivek Raina: Not at the moment. There are already many players catering to enterprise broadband. Our focus is on addressing a more fundamental issue: the scarcity of broadband access in urban India. As I mentioned, there are only about four crore broadband connections in the entire country, and that’s the real problem we aim to solve. Enterprise broadband is not an area that needs fixing—it’s already well-served and thriving.
For us, the priority remains Indian homes. We’re committed to bringing world-class fiber connections to households across the country. Ultimately, our vision is to converge all home services onto this fiber network. For example, we’re working on integrating broadcast television through fiber—what we’re calling “Excitel TV.”
Currently, 12 crore people in India consume broadcast television, with 6 crore relying on cable TV and another 6 crore on DTH. But there’s no reason for these separate systems to exist anymore. Technology has advanced. If a fiber connection is coming to your home, it should carry everything—high-speed Wi-Fi, internet, and cable TV—all in one seamless, converged product.
The next step is to migrate a significant portion of this 12-crore population, who are still dependent on traditional cable or DTH, onto our fiber network. That’s the direction we’re heading in.
TAM: Do you plan to some up with some bundled offerings as well?
Vivek Raina: That’s the future. As we expand, the goal is to connect more and more urban Indian homes with fiber.
Fiber is an incredible technology. With just a single strand, you can bring massive amounts of data into a home and send just as much out. Once these digital highways are built, everything, smart homes, cable TV, landlines, will eventually converge onto this single fiber connection. That’s the next big step.
