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Informist, Monday, Oct. 5, 2026

 

NEW DELHI – India had 1.33 billion telecommunication subscribers as of Mar. 31, up 10.8% on year, according to data released by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India on Monday. Of this, 778.79 million users were in urban areas and 551.79 million were in rural.

 

Internet subscribers increased 12.8% on year to 1.09 billion in 2025-26 (Apr-Mar). This comprised of 1.07 billion broadband users, up almost 13% on year. The average revenue per user for wireless service improved 3.6% on year to INR 180.73 per month, with the metric for prepaid service at INR 190.66 and that for postpaid service at INR 119.76.

 

Wireless data subscribers rose 9.3% on year to 1.03 billion in FY26 while the total volume of wireless data usage surged nearly 25% on year to 285,376 petabytes. Revenue from wireless data usage totalled INR 2.4 trillion for the 12 months under review, up 11.5% on year. The average revenue realisation per gigabyte wireless data usage moderated to INR 8.02 for FY26 from INR 8.97 in the preceding year. 

 

Each wireless data subscriber used 25.51 GB on average per month in FY26, up from from 21.53 GB in the previous year. The wireless mobile teledensity increased to 88.71% at the end of March from 81.94% at the end of the preceding year.

 

The overall teledensity in India increased to 93.26% at the end of March from 85.04% at the end of March 2025 - the urban teledensity increased to 151.47% from 131.45% and the rural teledensity increased to 60.46% from 59.06%. 

 

Teledensity is the number of active telephone or mobile connections per 100 people in a specific geographic area.

 

Gross revenue for the telecom sector rose 8.6% on year to INR 4.04 trillion in FY26, as per the data. The applicable gross revenue, which excludes non-telecom sources and other non-core income items, grew a shade over 7% on year to INR 3.8 trillion. The adjusted gross revenue for the year grew 10.4% on year to INR 3.35 trillion. The pass-through charges as a percentage of gross revenue declined to 11.30% in FY26 as against 14.21% in the preceding financial year.

 

Spectrum usage charges increased a little over 6% on year to INR 40.40 billion in FY26. 

 

Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd. retained its dominant position at the end of FY26, even as its market share moderated to 39.41% from 40.66% a year ago. Bharti Airtel Ltd. followed closely with a 37.04% share, gaining 363 basis points over the year. Meanwhile, Vodafone Idea Ltd. saw its share decline to 14.98% from 17.17% at the end of March 2025.

 

Overall, private telecom operators held 92.32% share of the overall wireless and wireline subscriber pie and state-owned operators held the remaining 7.68%.  End

 

Reported by Shakshi Jain

Edited by Deepshikha Bhardwaj 

 

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