India Telecom Subscription Data August 2026
India's telecommunications sector showed continued growth with total telephone subscriptions reaching 1,360.70 million at the end of August 2026, representing a net addition of 6.42 million subscribers during the month with a monthly growth rate of 0.47%. The subscriber base comprised 1,312.25 million wireless subscribers and 48.45 million wireline subscribers.
Broadband subscriptions reached 1,101.21 million including M2M cellular mobile connections, showing a monthly growth rate of 0.61% from July 2026's 1,094.48 million. Excluding M2M connections, broadband subscribers stood at 1,010.28 million. The broadband segment breakdown shows fixed wired access subscribers at 48.63 million (1.01% monthly growth), fixed wireless access subscribers at 19.34 million (2.68% growth), and mobile wireless access subscribers at 1,033.24 million (0.56% growth).
Urban telecommunications showed significantly higher penetration with 802.28 million urban telephone subscribers (58.96% of total) compared to 558.43 million rural subscribers (41.04%). Urban tele-density reached 155.00% while rural tele-density stood at 61.12%, highlighting the substantial urban-rural digital divide. Urban areas added 5.59 million net subscribers (0.70% growth rate) while rural areas added 0.83 million net subscribers (0.15% growth rate).
Market concentration is evident with the top five broadband service providers holding 98.58% market share. Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd. leads with 538.03 million subscribers (48.9% market share), followed by Bharti Airtel Ltd. with 386.39 million (35.1%), Vodafone Idea Ltd. with 130.88 million (11.9%), Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. with 27.82 million (2.5%), and Atria Convergence Technologies Ltd. with 2.48 million (0.2%).
In the fixed wired access segment, the top five providers held 71.66% market share with Reliance Jio leading at 14.81 million subscribers, followed by Bharti Airtel (11.44 million), BSNL (4.56 million), Atria Convergence (2.48 million), and Kerala Vision Broadband Ltd. (1.56 million). For wireless access, the top five held 99.99% market share led by Reliance Jio (523.22 million), Bharti Airtel (374.96 million), Vodafone Idea (130.87 million), BSNL (23.26 million), and IBus Virtual Network Services Private Limited (0.12 million).
Additional metrics show 15.83 million subscribers submitted Mobile Number Portability (MNP) requests in August 2026, and the number of active wireless subscribers (on peak VLR date) was 1,207.59 million. The wireline segment showed positive growth with subscribers increasing from 48.01 million to 48.45 million (0.93% monthly growth), and PSU access service providers (BSNL, MTNL, APSFL) collectively held 16.05% of the wireline market share.