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Highlights of Telecom Subscription Data at the end of March 2026

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22 APR 2026

ParticularsWireless*WirelineTotal(Wireless+Wireline)
Broadband Subscribers (Million)1019.3746.511065.88
Urban Telephone Subscribers (Million)735.7343.06778.79
Net Addition in March 2026 (Million)4.980.155.13
Monthly Growth Rate0.68%0.34%0.66%
Rural Telephone Subscribers (Million)546.605.19551.79
 Net Addition in March 2026 (Million)4.040.114.15
 Monthly Growth Rate0.74%2.09%0.76%
Total Telephone Subscribers (Million)1282.3348.251330.58
Net Addition in March 2026 (Million)9.020.259.28
Monthly Growth Rate0.71%0.53%0.70%
Share of Urban Subscribers57.37%89.24%58.53%
Share of Rural Subscribers42.63%10.76%41.47%
Overall Tele-densitywith M2M cellular mobile connections89.88%3.38%93.26%
Urban Tele-density@143.10%8.37%151.47%
Rural Tele-density@59.89%0.57%60.46%
Tele-density@ without M2M cellular mobile connections81.19%3.38%84.57%

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Note:

*  The wireless subscriber base comprises of wireless mobile telephone subscribers (including M2M cellular mobile connections), and FWA subscribers.

@ Tele-density has been computed on the basis of the projection of population from the ‘Report of the Technical Group on Population Projections for India and States 2011 – 2036’, published in July 2020.

# VLR is an acronym of Visitor Location Register. The dates of peak VLR for various Telecom Service Providers (TSPs) may be different in different service areas.

  1. Broadband Subscribers

Segment–wise Broadband Subscribers and Monthly Growth Rate in the month of March 2026

SegmentSubscriptionBroadband Subscribers at the end of(in million)Percentage Change
February 2026March 2026
Wired subscribersFixed Wired Access(DSL, FTTx, Ethernet/LAN, Cable Modem, ILL)46.0246.511.07%
Wireless SubscribersFixed Wireless Access(5G FWA, Wi-Fi, Wi-Max, Radio/UBR, Satellite)16.5117.103.60%
Mobile Wireless Access(Handset/Dongle/M2M-based-3G, 4G, 5G)996.521002.270.58%
Total Broadband Subscriptions1059.051065.880.65%

Top five Broadband (Wired & Wireless) Service providers at the end of   March 2026

S.No.Service ProviderSubscriber base(In million)
 Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd.523.44
 Bharti Airtel Ltd.368.84
 Vodafone Idea Ltd.128.91
 Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd.27.37
 Atria Convergence Technologies Ltd.2.40
Market Share of Top Five Broadband (Wired & Wireless) Service Providers98.60%

Service Provider-wise Market Share of Broadband (Wired & Wireless) Services at the end of March 2026

Top Five Fixed Wired Access Broadband Service providers at the end of March 2026

S.No.Service ProviderSubscriber base(In million)
 Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd.14.23
 Bharti Airtel Ltd.10.71
 Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd4.51
 Atria Convergence Technologies Ltd.2.40
 Kerala Vision Broadband Ltd.1.48
Market Share of Top Five Fixed (Wired) Access Broadband Service Providers71.68%

Top five Wireless (Fixed wireless & mobile) Access Broadband Service               

                           providers at the end of March 2026

S.No.Service ProviderSubscriber base(In million)
 Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd.509.21
 Bharti Airtel Ltd.358.13
 Vodafone Idea Ltd.128.91
 Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd.22.86
 IBus Virtual Network Services Private Limited0.11
Market Share of Top Five Wireless (Fixed wireless & Mobile) Access Broadband Service providers99.99%
  1. Wireline Telephone Subscriber Base

Access Service Provider-wise Market Share of Wireline Subscribers at the end of March 2026

Access Service Provider-wise Net Addition/Decline in Wireline Subscribers during the month of March 2026       

  1. Wireless Telephone (Mobile + FWA) Subscriber Base

Note: In the calculation of Tele-density figures, M2M cellular mobile connections have also been considered.

(A) Wireless (Mobile) subscriber Base

Note: In the calculation of Tele-density figures, M2M cellular mobile connections have also been considered.

• At the end of March 2026, the private access service providers held 92.64% of the market share in terms of wireless (mobile) subscribers, whereas PSU access service providers viz. BSNL and MTNL together held a market share of 7.36%.                                                                                                                                  

Access Service Provider-wise Market Shares in term of Wireless (Mobile) Subscribers at the end of March 2026

Net Addition/ Decline in Wireless (Mobile) Subscribers of Access Service Providers in the Month of March 2026

 Growth in Wireless (Mobile) Subscribers

Major Access Service Provider-wise Monthly Growth/ Decline Rate of Wireless (Mobile) Subscribers in the Month of March 2026

Licensed Service Area (LSA)-wise Monthly Growth/ Decline Rate of Wireless (Mobile) Subscribers in the Month of March 2026

(B) Wireless (FWA) Subscriber Base

  1. 5G FWA i.e. FWA using 5G radio access technology; and
  2. UBR FWA i.e. FWA using Unlicensed Band Radio (UBR) technology.
  1. M2M Cellular Mobile connections
  1. Total Telephone Subscriber Base

Note: In the calculation of Tele-density figures, M2M cellular mobile connections have also been considered.

Telephone Subscriber Base at the end of March 2026

S. No.Type of telephone connectionNo. of subscribers(in million)Total(in million)
1.WirelessConsumer SIM1,141.851,282.34
2.M2M SIM123.88
3.FWA16.61
4.           Wireline48.25 
5.          Total1,330.58 
S. No.ItemNo. of subscribers(in million)
1.No. of Wireless (mobile) connections including M2M cellular mobile connections *1,265.73
2.No. of Wireless (mobile) connections excluding M2M cellular mobile connections1,141.85

* Wireless (mobile) connections = Consumer SIM + M2M SIM

Overall Tele-density (LSA Wise) – At the end of March 2026

Notes: –

  1. Population data/projections are available state wise only.
  2. Tele-density figures are derived from the telephone subscriber data provided by the access service providers and the projection of population from the “Report of the Technical Group on Population Projections for India and States 2011 – 2036 published in July 2020.
  3. Telephone subscriber data for Delhi, includes, apart from the data for the State of Delhi, wireless subscriber data for the areas served by the local exchanges of Ghaziabad & Noida (in Uttar Pradesh) and Gurgaon & Faridabad (in Haryana).
  4. Data/information for West Bengal includes Kolkata, Maharashtra includes Mumbai and Uttar Pradesh includes UPE & UPW service areas.
  5. Data/information for Andhra Pradesh includes Telengana, Madhya Pradesh includes Chhatishgarh, Bihar includes Jharkhand, Maharashtra includes Goa, Uttar Pradesh includes Uttarakhand, West Bengal includes Sikkim and North-East includes Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland & Tripura States.
  6. In the calculation of Tele-density figures, M2M cellular mobile connections have also been included.
  1. Category-wise Growth in subscriber base

Circle Category-wise Net Additions in Telephone Subscribers in the Month

of March 2026

CircleCategoryNet additions in the month of March 2026Telephone Subscriber base at the end of March 2026
Wireline segmentWireless* segmentWireline segmentWireless* segment
Circle A199,2973,123,33220,644,918429,741,047
Circle B77,1052,792,63711,830,219498,763,901
Circle C37,2292,321,2453,675,856213,597,171
Metro-60,811785,88712,096,113140,232,051
All India252,8209,023,10148,247,1061,282,334,170

Circle Category-wise Monthly and Yearly Growth Rates in

Telephone Subscribers in the Month of March 2026

Circle CategoryMonthly growth rate (%) (February 2026 to March 2026)Yearly growth rate (%) (March 2025 to March 2026)
Wireline SegmentWireless* SegmentWireline SegmentWireless* Segment
Circle A0.97%0.73%41.71%11.18%
Circle B0.66%0.56%15.98%5.79%
Circle C1.02%1.10%24.75%11.09%
Metro-0.50%0.56%29.70%23.58%
All India0.53%0.71%30.25%10.19%

* The wireless subscriber base comprises of wireless mobile telephone subscribers (including M2M cellular mobile connections), and FWA subscribers.

Note: Circle Category-Metro includes Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata.

 Active Wireless (Mobile) Subscribers (VLR Data) 

Percentage of VLR Subscribers for the Top Four Access Service Providers in the month of March 2026

Service Area wise percentage of VLR Subscribers in the month of March 2026

  1. Mobile Number Portability (MNP)
Licensed Service Area Wise MNP Status (in million)
Zone-IZone–II
Service AreaNumber of Porting Requests inthe month ofService AreaNumber of Porting Requests inthe month of
February-26March-26February-26March-26
Delhi0.650.60Andhra Pradesh0.600.63
Gujarat0.960.93Assam0.110.13
Haryana0.430.43Bihar1.321.32
Himachal Pradesh0.060.06Karnataka0.550.55
Jammu & Kashmir0.070.08Kerala0.210.23
Maharashtra0.970.92Kolkata0.180.17
Mumbai0.250.25Madhya Pradesh1.411.40
Punjab0.380.39North East0.030.04
Rajasthan0.790.75Odisha0.220.25
U.P.(East)2.092.14Tamil Nadu0.560.63
U.P.(West)1.431.49West Bengal1.191.26
Total8.098.03Total     6.38         6.61
Total (Zone-I + Zone-II)14.4714.63
Contact details in        case of any clarification: – Shri Akhilesh Kumar Trivedi, Advisor (NSL-II),Telecom Regulatory Authority of India                                                                   World Trade Centre, Tower-F,Nauroji Nagar, New Delhi – 110029Ph: 011-20907758                                                           (Arun Agarwal)E-mail: advmn@trai.gov.in                                       Pr. Advisor (NSL), TRAI

Note: Peak VLR figures in some LSAs of some of the service providers are more than their HLR  figures due to a large number of inroamers.

Annexure IV

VLR Subscribers in the Wireless Segment

Home Location Register (HLR) is a central database that contains details of each mobile phone subscriber that is authorized to use the GSM core network. The HLRs store details of every SIM card issued by the service provider. Each SIM has a unique identifier called an International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI), which is the primary key to each HLR record. The HLR data is stored for as long as a subscriber remains with the service provider. HLR also manages the mobility of subscribers by means of updating their position in administrative areas. It sends the subscriber data to a Visitor Location Register (VLR).

Subscriber numbers reported by the service providers is the difference between the numbers of IMSI registered in service provider’s HLR and sum of other figures as given below: –

1Total IMSI’s in HLR (A)
2Less: (B = a + b + c + d + e)
a.Test/Service Cards
b.Employees
c.Stock in hand/in Distribution Channels (Active Card)
d.Subscriber Retention period expired
e.Service suspended pending disconnection
3Subscribers Base (A-B)

Visitor Location Register (VLR) is a temporary database of the subscribers who have roamed into the particular area, which it serves. Each base station in the network is served by exactly one VLR; hence a subscriber cannot be present in more than one VLR at a time.

If subscriber is in active stage i.e. he is able to send/receive calls/SMSs he is available both in HLR and VLR. However, it may be possible that the subscriber is registered in HLR but not in VLR due to the reason that he is either switched-off or moved out of coverage area, not reachable etc. In such circumstances he will be available in HLR but not in VLR. This causes difference between subscriber number reported by the service providers based on HLR and numbers available in VLR.

The VLR subscriber data calculated here is based on active subscribers in VLR on the date of Peak subscriber number in VLR of the particular month for which the data is being collected. This data is to be taken from the switches having the purge time of not more than 72 hours.

Fixed-Wireless (5G) Subscribers Base

Annexure-V

5G-Fixed Wireless Subscribers 
TSPs Name →Bharti AirtelReliance JioGrand Total
↓Telecom Service AreaFeb-26Mar-26Feb-26Mar-26Feb-26Mar-26
Andhra Pradesh3,20,295326,3987,11,614733,61710,31,9091,060,015
Assam75,90980,8321,98,870204,4102,74,779285,242
Bihar1,79,877191,5216,94,852719,0988,74,729910,619
Delhi1,72,406178,1802,30,045231,2694,02,451409,449
Gujarat2,00,188208,3894,47,825455,6416,48,013664,030
Haryana93,76198,6942,35,091243,1663,28,852341,860
Himachal Pradesh17,96719,00979,25981,75197,226100,760
Jammu & Kashmir65,57371,4411,79,321184,5302,44,894255,971
Karnataka3,03,113308,5254,21,364431,3097,24,477739,834
Kerala67,59569,6841,89,636197,4322,57,231267,116
Kolkata96,732100,8991,63,902166,2252,60,634267,124
Madhya Pradesh1,63,684171,3635,73,333591,0697,37,017762,432
Maharashtra3,06,404318,0566,27,224641,5259,33,628959,581
Mumbai1,12,622116,0191,09,622111,3992,22,244227,418
North East39,55041,71990,11992,7351,29,669134,454
Odisha82,34786,3903,09,420320,4113,91,767406,801
Punjab1,70,756180,6915,02,984514,3956,73,740695,086
Rajasthan2,16,058224,3594,72,615486,2596,88,673710,618
Tamil Nadu4,17,219428,2033,88,299400,3548,05,518828,557
Uttar Pradesh (East)2,22,221239,2837,03,259726,3349,25,480965,617
Uttar Pradesh (West)1,65,957174,3955,41,636560,5657,07,593734,960
West Bengal98,910103,6084,72,145490,6165,71,055594,224
TOTAL35,89,1443,737,65883,42,4358,584,1101,19,31,57912,321,768
Net Addition        148,514        241,675 390,189
Monthly Growth % 4.14% 2.90% 3.27%

Annexure-VI

Fixed-Wireless (UBR) Subscribers Base

UBR- Fixed Wireless Subscribers
TSPs Name →Reliance Jio
↓Telecom Service AreaFeb-26Mar-26
Andhra Pradesh    3,34,154     353,145
Assam       34,095       35,934
Bihar    2,79,543     292,063
Delhi    2,82,343     299,206
Gujarat    2,79,451     293,618
Haryana    1,80,379     187,139
Himachal Pradesh       10,660       11,072
Jammu & Kashmir       77,705       79,862
Karnataka    2,51,523     265,531
Kerala         9,897       10,331
Kolkata    1,81,892     193,683
Madhya Pradesh    2,41,754     253,607
Maharashtra    3,35,594     353,187
Mumbai       58,526       61,722
North East       14,341       15,222
Odisha       54,079       57,163
Punjab    2,38,728     250,624
Rajasthan    2,88,428     299,821
Tamil Nadu    1,73,472     183,779
Uttar Pradesh (East)    2,80,254     290,342
Uttar Pradesh (West)    3,54,486     368,895
West Bengal    1,24,782     129,649
TOTAL40,86,0864,285,595
Net Addition 199,509
Monthly Growth % 4.88%

*Only Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited has reported the information on the number of UBR FWA subscribers.

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