India’s telecom subscriber base rises to 1.354 billion in July

MUMBAI: India’s telecom story is still getting a strong signal. The country’s total telephone subscriber base climbed to 1,354.28 million by the end of July 2026, adding 6.20 million users in a month, as broadband adoption and wireless connections continued to push the market upwards, according to data released by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on 28 August.

The overall subscriber base rose 0.46 per cent month-on-month from 1,348.08 million in June. Wireless subscribers, including mobile and fixed wireless access (FWA), increased from 1,300.25 million to 1,306.27 million, also registering 0.46 per cent growth. Wireline connections edged up from 47.82 million to 48.01 million, a 0.39 per cent monthly increase.

India’s broadband base crossed the 1.09 billion mark, rising from 1,087.50 million in June to 1,094.48 million in July, a monthly growth rate of 0.64 per cent. Mobile wireless access accounted for 1,027.50 million broadband connections, while fixed wireless access stood at 18.84 million and fixed wired access at 48.14 million.

The broadband market remains heavily concentrated among its biggest players. Reliance Jio Infocomm had 535.12 million broadband subscribers, followed by Bharti Airtel with 384.23 million, Vodafone Idea with 129.96 million, BSNL with 27.28 million and Atria Convergence Technologies with 2.47 million. Together, the top five accounted for 98.59 per cent of the broadband market.

On the fixed-wireless and mobile broadband front, Jio led with 520.44 million subscribers, followed by Airtel at 372.94 million, Vodafone Idea at 129.95 million, BSNL at 22.74 million and iBus Virtual Network Services at 0.12 million. The top five controlled 99.99 per cent of this segment.

The wireless mobile subscriber base, excluding FWA but including M2M connections, reached 1,287.92 million, up from 1,282.38 million in June and representing 0.43 per cent monthly growth. Urban mobile subscriptions rose to 743.65 million, while rural subscriptions reached 544.27 million.

Across wireless mobile services, private operators held 92.75 per cent of the market at the end of July, leaving 7.25 per cent for public sector operators BSNL and MTNL. On a yearly basis, the wireless segment grew 7.02 per cent, while the wireline segment declined 0.22 per cent.

The numbers also show that not every connection is merely sitting idle. Of the 1,287.92 million wireless mobile subscribers, 1,204.01 million were active on the peak VLR date in July, equivalent to approximately 93.48 per cent of the total mobile base. Airtel recorded the highest active-subscriber proportion among the top operators at 99.12 per cent.

Machine-to-machine connectivity continued to expand, with M2M cellular connections increasing from 134.73 million to 137.70 million during July. Airtel led this category with 84.45 million connections and a 61.33 per cent market share, followed by Jio at 19.29 per cent, Vodafone Idea at 15.92 per cent and BSNL at 3.46 per cent.

FWA also continued its climb. 5G FWA subscriptions rose from 12.94 million to 13.21 million, split between 6.56 million urban and 6.64 million rural users. UBR-based FWA stood at another 5.14 million, taking total FWA connections to 18.35 million.

And consumers were clearly willing to change lanes. TRAI recorded 15.98 million Mobile Number Portability (MNP) requests in July, up from 14.78 million in June. Zone I accounted for 8.89 million requests and Zone II for 7.09 million.

Uttar Pradesh East recorded the highest number of requests in Zone I at 2.29 million, followed by UP West at 1.55 million. In Zone II, Madhya Pradesh led with 1.52 million, followed by Bihar at 1.47 million.

The broader picture remains one of steady expansion: overall tele-density rose from 94.31 per cent to 94.68 per cent, while rural tele-density increased from 60.89 per cent to 61.05 per cent. Urban tele-density moved up from 153.43 per cent to 154.12 per cent, underscoring how deeply connected India’s telecom market has become.