Airtel tops telecom subscriber additions in April as India user base hits all-time high

Bharti Airtel added 34.82 lakh net new customers across segments in April, the highest among peers, according to the latest Trai data released on Tuesday.

India’s total telephone subscriber base rose by 69.5 lakh in April to an all-time high of 133.75 crore, driven by continued growth in wireless and broadband connections.

"The number of total telephone subscribers in India increased from 1,330.58 million at the end of March 2026 to 1,337.54 million at the end of April 2026, thereby showing a monthly growth rate of 0.52%," the Ministry of Communications said in a statement.

Airtel's net new subscriber addition stood at 34.82 lakh, comprising 31.39 lakh in the wireless or mobile segment and 3.43 lakh in the wireline segment in April 2026.

Wireless subscribers, including mobile and fixed wireless access (FWA) users, increased to 128.89 crore at the end of April 2026 from 128.23 crore recorded in the preceding month.

Wireless tele-density also improved to 90.28% from 89.88% during the period.

The number of wireless mobile subscribers alone climbed to 127.2 crore at the end of April from 126.6 crore a month earlier.

Private telecom operators accounted for 92.67% of the wireless mobile market, while state-run BSNL and MTNL together held a 7.33% share.

Wireline subscribers rose to 4.85 crore in April from 4.82 crore in March, posting a monthly growth rate of 0.68%. Urban users continued to dominate the segment, accounting for over 89% of total wireline subscribers.

The country’s broadband subscriber base stood at 107.3 crore at the end of April, including 102.7 crore wireless broadband users and 4.68 crore wireline broadband subscribers.

Reliance Jio remained the market leader with 51.25 crore subscribers, followed by Bharti Airtel at 36.21 crore and Vodafone Idea at 12.89 crore.

Jio's net subscriber addition stood at 30.84 lakh, which includes 29.42 lakh new mobile connections and 1.42 lakh wireline connections.

Vodafone Idea (Vi) added 53,257 new subscribers, and BSNL added 76,175. The growth in the segment was marginally mitigated with state-run telecom MTNL losing 33,403 subscribers.

The number of 5G FWA subscribers increased to 12.55 million at the end of April from 12.32 million in March, reflecting growing adoption of high-speed wireless home broadband services.

Machine-to-machine (M2M) cellular mobile connections also rose sharply to 12.74 crore from 12.38 crore in March. Bharti Airtel led the M2M segment with a 61.98% market share.