Hindi
BO: A bad start to 2014
MUMBA: It has been a dull scene at the box office windows all over as even the Salman Khan film, Jai Ho, has behaved way below expectations. The single screens were made to pay high MGs (the demand was “More than MGs paid for Dhoom3!). All stand to lose 50 to 60% of the MGs paid. They had a happy ending to year 2013 with Dhoom3 but have had a bad start to 2014. Also, there is no major film in sight in near future to rest their hopes on.
Salman Khan’s sermonising fare, Jai Ho, has not been able to draw crowds from day one. The audience seems to have a strong antenna about their choice and infer a lot from the publicity campaigns of a particular film. The film had a weak Friday and a Saturday which saw a drop instead of a rise in collections. The only saving grace were the Sunday collections which jumped by about 40% over its opening day figures. With an opening weekend of 57.2 crore, the film has not even managed to cross the mandatory 100 crore mark in its first week which is expected of any major star. The film ended its first week with 82.1 crore. It may just about manage to cross the 100 crore mark which still makes it a loser.
The solo release of the week, One By Two is a rank bad film and faced the consequences for being so. Lacking any story worth telling and a coherent script backed by poor handling, it failed to attract even a small fraternity of Abhay Deol fans. At many screens, there was ‘No audience, no show’ status. The film collected 1.4 crore for its first weekend.
Yaariyan, its mediocre content notwithstanding, has made its money. Having collected 32.05 crore in its first two weeks, the film has added another crore to its tally, taking its total to 33.05 crore.
Dedh Ishqiya has run out of steam by its third week. Adding just 80 lakh for its third week, the film’s three week take is 25.4 crore.
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.
