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Telecom Rings In Growth as India Adds Users and Hits New Connectivity Highs
MUMBAI: Dialling up the numbers, India’s telecom story added a few more bars in November. As the year wound down, the country’s telecom networks stayed busy, with subscriber additions, porting requests and broadband growth all flashing green. Data released by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India shows that November 2025 kept the sector firmly connected, even as growth settled into a steady rhythm.
India’s total telephone subscriber base rose to 1,234.53 million by the end of November, adding 3.16 million users in a single month. Wireless subscribers stood at 1,187.48 million, while wireline connections climbed to 47.05 million, reflecting a modest but consistent revival of fixed-line services. Overall tele-density edged up to 86.77 per cent, with urban India clocking an eye-catching 135.39 per cent, underlining the saturation in metros.
Broadband crossed a psychological milestone, with subscriptions touching 1,003.65 million, up from 999.81 million in October. Wireless broadband continued to do the heavy lifting, led by mobile data users at 944.48 million, while fixed wireless access saw a sharp 6.69 per cent monthly jump to 14.06 million, signalling growing traction for 5G FWA and similar services. Wired broadband, though slower, inched up to 45.11 million.
When it comes to market muscle, the top three players continued to dominate broadband. Reliance Jio led the pack with 510.52 million subscribers, followed by Bharti Airtel at 314.26 million and Vodafone Idea at 127.75 million, together accounting for over 98 per cent of the broadband market.
A hefty 14.69 million subscribers sought Mobile Number Portability in November alone, highlighting the intense competition among operators. Uttar Pradesh (East) topped the charts in Zone I with 1.97 million requests, while Madhya Pradesh led Zone II at 1.40 million, showing that churn remains as strong in heartland circles as in metros.
Active usage remained robust too. Of the 1,173.88 million wireless mobile subscribers, 1,090.91 million were active on peak VLR days, translating into an activity ratio of nearly 93 per cent. Bharti Airtel recorded the highest proportion of active users at 98.81 per cent, while PSU operators continued to trail on this metric.
Machine-to-machine connections also surged, crossing the 100 million mark for the first time at 103.48 million, driven largely by enterprise adoption and IoT use cases. Airtel led this segment with over 60 per cent market share.
Put together, November’s data paints a picture of a telecom sector that may no longer be sprinting, but is certainly not standing still. With broadband now a billion-strong, porting requests piling up and new technologies nudging adoption beyond metros, India’s telecom networks ended 2025 very much still on the line and ringing.
