THEBUSINESSBYTES
BUREAU
NEW
DELHI, SEPTEMBER 28, 2026
Reliance Jio
continued to strengthen its position across India's telecom and broadband
markets in August, adding nearly 3.7 times more HLR net subscribers, excluding
M2M connections, than its nearest competitor Bharti Airtel, even as the
country's overall telephone subscriber base expanded by 6.42 million during the
month.
According to telecom
subscription data released on Monday, India's total telephone subscriber base
rose to 1.36 billion at the end of August from the previous month, registering
a monthly growth of 0.47 per cent.
Jio also stood out on
the active subscriber front, emerging as the only major operator to record
positive VLR additions, excluding M2M, during August, with an increase of
around 1.7 million. Over the trailing three months since May 2026, Jio's VLR
net additions were nearly four times those of Airtel, according to the data
analysis.
The gains come as
India's wireless subscriber base continues to expand, with wireless connections
rising by 5.98 million to 1,312.25 million in August. The number of active
wireless subscribers, measured on the date of peak Visitor Location Register
(VLR), stood at 1,207.59 million during the month.
Jio's momentum was
also visible in the home broadband segment, where it continued to lead with
additions estimated at around 2.5 times those of Airtel in August.
A key driver of Jio's
home broadband growth was its AirFiber offering. Jio added around 0.4 million
fixed wireless access (FWA) subscribers during the month, compared with about
0.1 million added by Airtel, representing nearly a four-fold difference.
Jio consequently
continued to dominate India's rapidly expanding FWA market, accounting for
around 78.6 per cent market share and adding approximately 0.4 million
connections in August.
The broader fixed
wireless access segment was the fastest-growing broadband category during the
month, rising 2.68 per cent to 19.34 million subscribers.
India's overall
broadband subscriber base crossed the 1.1 billion mark in August, rising to
1,101.21 million from 1,094.48 million in July, a monthly growth of 0.61 per
cent.
The broadband base
comprised 48.63 million fixed wired access connections, 19.34 million fixed
wireless access connections and 1,033.24 million mobile wireless access
connections.
Jio remained the
country's largest broadband service provider with 538.03 million subscribers,
followed by Airtel at 386.39 million and Vodafone Idea at 130.88 million. BSNL
had 27.82 million subscribers, while Atria Convergence Technologies had 2.48
million.
In fixed wired
broadband, Jio led with 14.81 million subscribers, ahead of Airtel's 11.44
million and BSNL's 4.56 million. In wireless broadband, Jio had 523.22 million
subscribers, compared with Airtel's 374.96 million and Vodafone Idea's 130.87
million.
The top five service
providers accounted for 98.58 per cent of India's total broadband subscriber
base, underlining the highly concentrated nature of the country's broadband
market.
Overall, wireless
subscriptions registered a net addition of 5.98 million in August, while
wireline connections increased by 0.44 million. The total wireline subscriber
base rose to 48.45 million from 48.01 million in July.
Urban subscribers
continued to account for the larger share of India's telephone connections, at
802.28 million or 58.96 per cent, while rural subscribers stood at 558.43
million, representing 41.04 per cent of the total.
The rural telephone
subscriber base increased by 0.83 million in August, while urban connections
rose by 5.59 million.
India's overall tele-density stood at 95.07 per cent at the end of August, including M2M cellular mobile connections. Excluding M2M connections, tele-density stood at 85.26 per cent.
Meanwhile, 15.83 million subscribers submitted requests for Mobile Number Portability (MNP) during August, reflecting continued movement of customers between telecom operators.
