- Access the TRAI data on mobile users from here
We missed this earlier: Bharti Airtel added the highest number of mobile subscribers in May 2026, outpacing Reliance Jio, even as India’s overall telephone subscriber base rose by 5.56 million to 1.343 billion, according to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI).
Airtel added 2.93 million wireless (mobile) subscribers during the month, followed by Jio with 2.15 million. Vodafone Idea added 1.21 lakh subscribers, while BSNL lost 1.05 lakh users. MTNL and Reliance Communications together lost fewer than 4,000 subscribers.
Overall subscriber growth continues: India’s wireless subscriber base, which includes mobile and fixed wireless access (FWA) users, increased by 5.5 million to 1.294 billion in May from 1.289 billion in April, a monthly growth of 0.43%. Mobile subscribers alone rose by 5.09 million to 1.277 billion.
Despite Airtel’s stronger monthly additions, Jio remained India’s largest mobile operator with 501.44 million wireless subscribers, followed by Airtel at 483.81 million, Vodafone Idea at 198.66 million and BSNL at 92.91 million. Private operators together accounted for 92.71% of India’s mobile subscriber base, while BSNL and MTNL held the remaining 7.29%.
The country’s total telephone subscriber base, including wireline connections, reached 1.343 billion at the end of May, up 0.42% from the previous month. Overall tele-density improved to 94.02% from 93.69%.
Urban areas continued to dominate telecom connections, accounting for 58.65% of all telephone subscribers, while rural areas made up 41.35%. Urban tele-density stood at 152.8%, compared with 60.83% in rural India, highlighting the continuing gap in connectivity.
Broadband and FWA keep expanding: Broadband subscriptions also grew during the month, rising by 6.71 million to 1.080 billion. Jio remained the largest broadband provider with 529.61 million subscribers, followed by Airtel (376.11 million), Vodafone Idea (129.21 million) and BSNL (27.52 million). Together, the top five providers controlled 98.59% of the broadband market.
Fixed Wireless Access (FWA), one of the fastest-growing broadband segments, continued to expand. Total FWA subscribers increased to 17.47 million, comprising 12.73 million 5G FWA users and 4.73 million users on unlicensed-band radio (UBR) technology. Jio led the FWA market, while Airtel and Jio together accounted for all reported 5G FWA subscribers.
Wireline connections recorded modest growth, adding about 60,000 subscribers to reach 48.64 million. Public sector operators BSNL, MTNL and APSFL together held 18.4% of the wireline market.
Active users remain high, M2M and porting rise: Machine-to-machine (M2M) cellular connections grew sharply by 3.63 million to 131.11 million. Airtel led this segment with 80.83 million connections, giving it a 61.65% market share, followed by Jio (19.14%), Vodafone Idea (16.02%) and BSNL (3.19%).
Subscriber activity levels remained…
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