Hindi
UFO Moviez & Pyramid-Saimira join hands to set up digital cinema chain
MUMBAI: Digital cinema network UFO Moviez and the Chennai based Pyramid Saimira Theatres Limited (PSTL) have got together for the digitisation of 1000 theatres over the next three years all over India.
UFO Moviez shall be providing end to end digital cinema solutions for the theatres in the Pyramid Saimira chain at a cost of Rs 1.5 billion.
Commenting on the deal, UFO India executive director & CEO Sanjay Gaikwad said, “We anticipate that this tie up with Pyramid group will chart the way for the digital revolution happening in the field of cinema exhibition. A single integrated chain of 1000 digital cinemas all over India will provide producers and distributors a unique opportunity for saturated wide spread release in the week of release itself. Worldwide, there is tremendous excitement about this technology which is being hailed as the next great leap in film distribution and exhibition”.
Elaborating on the agreement, UFO India’s director Usman Fayaz adds, “Pyramid Saimira has tremendous presence in the southern states and are now looking at expanding to other territories in India. This agreement is indeed a step forward in our future plans of creating a truly global network and becoming the world’s undisputed leaders in digital cinema network.”
“The states of Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Karnataka between themselves have 59 per cent of the cinema halls in India. We expect at least 50 per cent of our conversions to UFO Digital system to come from the south market. Unlike the hindi speaking states, the four southern states are highly compartmentalized as regards film viewing and exhibition in terms of language and we expect a high density of theatres in these states.”
States PSTL MD P S Saminathan, “PSTL plans to have 2000 screens under its full operation management spread across 1550 locations by the year 2009-2010. The agreement with UFO enables PSTL to reach this target faster since it frees PSTL capital from Plant & Machinery and enables PSTL to lock in more points of presence faster”.
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.
