Hindi
Dangal benchmarked; new big race on cards
MUMBAI: It has been tough going for the exhibition trade for the last couple of weeks as there has been nothing to feed the screens. Thankfully, Dangal sustained the trade for three weeks and still, in its fourth week and fifth weekend, has been drawing better footfalls than the new releases could do.
The new week comes as a windfall for the exhibition trade as two major films, Kaabil and Raees, release midweek, on 25 January, to cash in on the Republic Day holiday on Thursday. In fact, this is more than the exhibitors could have asked for as their acumen is on test on which film should be given how many screens!
The scale will probably tilt in the favour of whichever film looks more likely to go with the multiplex audience. Such competition and simultaneous release between two major star-cast films coming from established banners, is not wise and also rare in the high stakes scenario.
*Coffee With D proves to be another film made on whim! The makers fancy with the don Dawood has caused many losses among investors. And, to think that a poorly conceived idea of shaming the don could work, the idea was amateur. Not to mention that so was the scripting and direction besides the poor casting.
The film remained below a collection of Rs 15 lakh on its opening day and faced the same fate as other such films do, no viewers leading to cancelled shows. The film collected a total of around Rs 50 lakh for its opening weekend.
*Haraamkhor makers shared the ‘success’ of their film with the media the other day! For a film that was rejected outright and failed to find audience on most days of its opening week, this must be quite an achievement. The film’s collection figures barely crossed merely a crore-mark, for the week.
*OK Jaanu is poor; but managed to collect just Rs 16.85 crore in its first week. The big names of Karan Johar and Mani Ratnam didn’t help, only the content does.
*Dangal has sustained very well in its fourth week by collecting Rs 15.08 crore taking its four-week total to Rs 374.95 crore. The film has added further Rs 6.12 crore for its fifth weekend to take its 31-day tally to Rs 381.07 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.
