Broadband
Hathway launches new scheme for cable Internet subscribers
Hathway Cable & Datacom has announced a new scheme to promote Internet through cable as a viable alternative to dial-up. The Silver Starter rate plan offers bandwidth of 64 kbps with a download limit of 300MB. The monthly charge is Rs 650 while the yearly charge is Rs 6500. This is a reduction from the earlier flat fee of Rs 1000 per subscriber. Free e-mail service of 5 mb will also be provided. The Silver Starter plan will exist along with the other schemes where monthly instalments start from Rs 1000 onwards.
The company has also started monthly billing for SMTP Services for domains other than Hathway. The monthly charge is Rs 600 plus the 5 per cent service tax. Earlier this month the company reduced the cable modem price to Rs 7,800 from Rs 9000.
All these initiatives are aimed at attracting Net users in the dial-up system who use around 20 hours a month. The cost of bandwidth has dropped by almost 20 per cent.
Reports indicate that Hathway will not expand the cable Internet service to new areas. Hyderabad will be the only new territory of expansion in the near future. Its service is currently available in Delhi, Pune, Chennai and Bangalore. In Mumbai the company operates from Colaba to Mahim. It also has a presence in the suburb of Chembur.
Broadband
Airtel and Jio surge ahead as Vodafone Idea and BSNL lose subscribers in December
India’s mobile base rises in December, but gains skewed towards the top two operators
NEW DELHI: India’s telecom market ended 2025 with a familiar split: the leaders sprinting ahead, the laggards slipping further. Fresh data from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) show Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio adding millions of wireless users in December, while Vodafone Idea and state-run BSNL continued to bleed subscribers.
India’s overall telephone subscriber base, wireless and wireline, climbed to 1.306 billion in December 2025, a monthly rise of 0.66 per cent. Growth was driven largely by wireless, which accounted for the bulk of new additions.
Bharti Airtel added 5.42 million wireless subscribers during the month, the biggest net gain among operators. Reliance Jio followed with roughly 2.96 million additions. Their gains were spread across multiple licensed service areas, underscoring broad-based momentum.
The story was starkly different for their rivals. Vodafone Idea recorded a net loss of about 9.4 lakh wireless subscribers, extending a run of monthly erosion. BSNL also saw its base shrink by around 2.06 lakh users. Despite marginal gains in a few circles, the PSU’s overall wireless base continued to contract.
Taken together, net wireless (mobile) additions across operators stood at 7.23 million in December.
Wireless subscribers, including mobile and fixed wireless access (FWA), rose to 1.258 billion, a net monthly increase of 8.21 million. Wireless tele-density improved to 88.41 per cent, though the urban–rural divide remained wide: urban tele-density at 140.66 per cent versus 59.07 per cent in rural areas.
The wireline segment posted modest growth. Subscribers increased from 47.05 million in November to 47.37 million in December, a 0.68 per cent monthly rise. Urban areas continued to dominate, while rural wireline tele-density stayed low.
Broadband crossed a symbolic milestone, with total subscribers topping one billion to reach 1,007.35 million by December-end. Mobile wireless broadband remained the primary access mode. In fixed wireless access, 5G FWA subscribers grew 5.59 per cent month on month, signalling gradual uptake of next-generation services.
Yet churn remains high. TRAI noted that about 16.12 million subscribers submitted mobile number portability requests in December alone.
The scoreboard is clear: scale is breeding more scale at the top, while smaller players struggle to hold ground. In India’s brutally competitive telecom arena, December’s numbers show a market that is still growing, but not evenly—and momentum, for now, sits firmly with the frontrunners.
