India adds 17.5 million phone users in a quarter as data use surges

NEW DELHI: India does not do small numbers. In the three months to 30 June 2026, the country added 17.50 million telephone subscribers, lifting the total from 1,330.58 million to 1,348.08 million, or about 1.35 billion connections. Tele-density rose from 93.26 per cent to 94.31 per cent. Year on year, subscriptions are up 10.65 per cent. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has now put it all in its “Indian Telecom Services Performance Indicator Report” for April-June 2026, and the picture is one of a market that keeps growing and keeps getting more digital.

Start with the internet. Total subscribers rose 1.96 per cent in the quarter, from 1,092.79 million to 1,114.17 million. Broadband did the heavy lifting, up 2.03 per cent from 1,065.88 million to 1,087.50 million, while the narrowband base shrank 0.89 per cent to 26.67 million. That is the right direction of travel. Mobile wireless accounts for 94.07 per cent of internet subscription, wired for 4.28 per cent and fixed wireless for 1.65 per cent. India now has 77.94 internet subscribers per 100 people, with the urban figure at 129.03 and the rural at 49.07. That rural gap is also the biggest opportunity in the market.

Then the data. Wireless data subscribers climbed 1.86 per cent to 1,045.55 million. Yet total mobile data usage jumped 8.30 per cent, from 77,953 PB to 84,424 PB, and average use per subscriber rose 6.32 per cent to 28.39 GB a month from 26.70 GB. Volumes are growing more than four times faster than the subscriber base. In other words, Indians are not merely signing up, they are using more of what they have signed up for.

The money follows the megabytes. Average revenue per user (ARPU) for wireless service rose 1.19 per cent to Rs 187.12 from Rs 184.91, and is up 3.11 per cent year on year. Revenue realisation per GB slipped 5.07 per cent to Rs 7.13 from Rs 7.51, so consumers are getting more data for less per gigabyte while operators still earn more per user. Prepaid ARPU stands at Rs 200.72 and postpaid at Rs 114.26. Voice, meanwhile, is giving ground to data. Minutes of usage per subscriber per month fell 2.65 per cent to 933 from 959, with prepaid at 1,055 and postpaid at 279.

For the sector, the numbers are healthy. Gross revenue (GR) was Rs 1,06,797 crore, applicable gross revenue (ApGR) Rs 1,01,036 crore and adjusted gross revenue (AGR) Rs 88,796 crore. Over the previous quarter they grew 1.60 per cent, 2.43 per cent and 2.40 per cent respectively. Over the same quarter last year the gains were 10.50 per cent, 9.52 per cent and 9.19 per cent. Licence fee rose to Rs 7,103 crore from Rs 6,936 crore, up 2.41 per cent on the quarter and 9.18 per cent on the year. Pass-through charges eased 2.02 per cent to Rs 12,241 crore from Rs 12,494 crore, though they are 17.06 per cent higher than a year ago. Access services supply 83.85 per cent of AGR, followed by national long distance (NLD) at 7.10 per cent, internet service providers (ISPs) at 7.02 per cent, international long distance (ILD) at 1.80 per cent and others at 0.23 per cent. Within access, AGR grew 2.72 per cent and spectrum usage charges (SUC) 2.83 per cent, while pass-through charges fell 8.83 per cent.

Wireless is the engine. With a net addition of 17.92 million, the wireless (mobile plus fixed wireless access) base rose 1.40 per cent to 1,300.25 million, and is up 11.05 per cent on the year. Wireless tele-density reached 90.96 per cent. The mobile-only base grew by 16.66 million to 1,282.38 million, a rise of 1.32 per cent (10.26 per cent year on year), with mobile tele-density at 89.71 per cent. Private operators hold 92.50 per cent of the overall market and public sector operators 7.50 per cent.

The reach is widening on both sides of the urban-rural line. Urban subscribers rose from 778.79 million to 792.06 million, and urban tele-density from 151.47 per cent to 153.43 per cent. A figure above 100 per cent hints at many city users holding more than one connection. Rural subscribers rose from 551.79 million to 556.01 million, with rural tele-density up from 60.46 per cent to 60.89 per cent. Excluding machine-to-machine (M2M) cellular connections, overall tele-density is 84.88 per cent.

Quality, too, gets a clean bill. TRAI reports that all wireline providers fully met the benchmarks across every licensed service area, as did every wireless access provider on 21 listed parameters, including a call set-up success rate of at least 98 per cent within a network, latency of no more than 75 msec in 4G and 5G, and billing complaints of no more than 0.1 per cent. Broadband (wireline) providers met all 10 listed parameters in all service areas, including latency of no more than 50 msec and jitter of no more than 40 ms.

Broadcasting is steadier. The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) has permitted 915 private satellite TV channels. Of 906 available for downlinking, 342 are pay channels (238 standard definition and 104 high definition) and 566 are free-to-air. Four pay direct-to-home (DTH) operators have 48.56 million active subscribers, down from 49.09 million, and this is in addition to DD Free Dish. In radio, five FM channels surrendered permissions from 14 June 2026, while HT Media Ltd began a channel in Moradabad on 19 April 2026. That leaves 386 private FM channels in 121 cities run by 30 operators, plus 578 community radio stations. FM advertisement revenue was Rs 376.16 crore, against Rs 414.03 crore in the previous quarter.

The verdict? More users, far more data, rising ARPU, double-digit annual revenue growth and a network that meets its quality benchmarks. The dips, in voice minutes, wireline and DTH, mostly show where the market is moving rather than where it is stuck. India’s telecom story is still very much being written in gigabytes.