Hindi
Amitabh Bachchan and Farhan Akhtar to team up again
MUMBAI: After Lakshya, Amitabh Bachchan is yet again ready to team up with Farhan Akhtar but this time, unlike their previous venture, Farhan will be seen sharing screen space with the star.
Titled Do, the movie will be produced by Vidhu Vinod Chopra and directed by Bejoy Nambiar. The film will also have Aditi Rao Hydari playing the female lead.
Do is said to be an intense emotional drama which has Amitabh Bachchan playing the role of an ailing bed ridden chess master and is slated to go on floor on 29 September.
Excited about his new project, the legendary star posted on his blog, “Our work on the next film with Vidhu Vinod Chopra, has begun with class like readings and discussions, on table. It is a wonderful exercise to be able to go through an entire script with the entire cast.”
“Yet have some reserve stored up for the final moment when we shall all be facing the camera, instead of a written and bound script, with that ominous looking producer Vinod, looking down upon us with fierce and hard workman like expressions,” he added.
Bachchan has earlier worked with Chopra in 2007 film Eklavya: The Royal Guard but this is the first collaboration between the actor and Nambiar, best known for helming Shaitan.
After Amitabh Bachchan’s Yudh came to an end recently, the superstar is busy hosting the popular quiz show Kaun Banega Crorepati and also preparing for Shoojit Sircar’s Piku starring Deepika Padukone and Irrfan Khan. On the other hand, Farhan Akhtar is wrapping up his sister Zoya Akhtar’s film Dil Dhadakne Do. The actor is also producing films like Bangistan, Raees and the upcoming film on time travelling starring Sidharth Malhotra under his banner Excel Entertainment.
Hindi
India’s telecom subscribers cross 1.32 billion in February 2026
Broadband base swells past 1.06 billion as Jio and Airtel tighten grip on the market.
MUMBAI: India’s telecom sector is ringing in steady growth once again adding millions of new connections every month while the race for broadband supremacy continues to heat up like a fiercely contested cricket match. According to the latest data released by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on 1 April 2026, the total telephone subscriber base in the country reached 1,321.31 million at the end of February 2026. This marked a net addition of 7.31 million subscribers during the month, translating into a monthly growth rate of 0.56 per cent.
Wireless subscribers (including mobile and Fixed Wireless Access) stood at 1,273.31 million, registering a net addition of 6.97 million and a growth rate of 0.55 per cent. Within this, urban wireless connections grew to 730.75 million (growth 0.70 per cent), while rural wireless subscribers reached 542.56 million (growth 0.35 per cent).
Wireline subscribers, though much smaller in scale, showed slightly faster growth. The total wireline base increased to 47.99 million, with a net addition of 0.34 million and a monthly growth rate of 0.70 per cent. Urban areas continued to dominate wireline connections with a share of 89.41 per cent.
Overall tele-density in India improved to 92.66 per cent. Urban tele-density stood at 150.68 per cent, while rural tele-density edged up to 60.02 per cent.
The broadband subscriber base crossed a significant milestone, reaching 1,059.05 million at the end of February 2026. This reflected a healthy net addition of 6.33 million subscribers and a monthly growth rate of 0.60 per cent from January’s figure of 1,052.72 million.
Segment-wise, mobile wireless access continued to drive the majority of growth with 996.52 million subscribers. Fixed Wireless Access (including 5G FWA) added 16.51 million, while wired broadband stood at 46.02 million.
Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd. maintained its commanding lead with 519.64 million broadband subscribers. Bharti Airtel Ltd. followed with 364.14 million, Vodafone Idea Ltd. with 129.36 million, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. with 28.70 million, and Atria Convergence Technologies Ltd. with 2.38 million.
Together, these top five players command a massive 98.60 per cent share of the total broadband market.
In the wireless (mobile) segment, private operators continued to dominate with 92.59 per cent market share, leaving public sector undertakings (BSNL and MTNL) with just 7.41 per cent.
Out of the total 1,257.29 million wireless (mobile) subscribers, 1,177.60 million were active on the peak Visitor Location Register (VLR) date, representing an impressive 93.66 per cent activity rate. Bharti Airtel led in this metric with 99.42 per cent of its subscribers active.
Meanwhile, 14.47 million subscribers submitted requests for Mobile Number Portability (MNP) in February, indicating healthy competition and customer churn across zones.
While urban areas still lead in absolute numbers, rural connectivity is slowly catching up. Rural wireless tele-density stood at 59.46 per cent, compared with the much higher urban figure of 142.32 per cent.
Fixed Wireless Access using 5G technology also showed promising traction, growing to 11.93 million subscribers. Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel are the primary players driving this segment.
The data paints a picture of a maturing yet still rapidly expanding telecom ecosystem. With total telephone subscribers now well past the 1.32 billion mark and broadband users comfortably above 1.06 billion, India continues to solidify its position as one of the world’s largest and most dynamic digital markets.
From bustling city streets to remote villages, more Indians are staying connected than ever before proving that when it comes to telecom, the country’s appetite for growth shows no signs of hanging up anytime soon.
