Telcos’ gross revenue rises 7% to ₹1.05 lakh crore in March quarter, ARPU growth remains muted

Telecom operators’ gross revenue rose 6.99% year-on-year to ₹1.05 lakh crore in the March 2026 quarter, while adjusted gross revenue (AGR) grew 9.45% to ₹86,716 crore, according to a TRAI report released on Monday.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), in its Indian Telecom Services Performance Indicator Report for the January-March 2026 period, said gross revenue (GR) of the telecom services sector stood at ₹1,05,118 crore in the quarter ended March 31, 2026.

Applicable gross revenue (ApGR) was ₹98,638 crore.

Compared with the previous quarter, GR rose 2.58%, ApGR 2.26% and AGR 2.90%.

On a year-on-year basis, GR, ApGR and AGR grew 6.99%, 6.50% and 9.45%, respectively.

Pass-through charges rose 10.6% quarter-on-quarter to ₹12,494 crore, while licence fee collections increased 3.02% to ₹6,936 crore.

India’s internet subscriber base rose by more than 64 million in the March quarter, helping push the overall telecom subscriber count higher, even as wireless average revenue per user (ARPU) saw only a marginal sequential increase.

The total number of internet subscribers increased 6.24% quarter-on-quarter to 1,092.79 million at the end of March 2026 from 1,028.61 million at the end of December 2025.

Of the total internet subscribers, 46.54 million were wired and 1,046.26 million were wireless users.

The broadband subscriber base rose 5.81% to 1,065.88 million at the end of March 2026 from 1,007.35 million in the preceding quarter, while narrowband subscribers climbed 26.62% to 26.91 million.

The total number of telephone subscribers in the country increased 1.87% to 1,330.58 million at the end of March 2026 from 1,306.14 million at the end of December 2025.

Wireless subscribers, including mobile and fixed wireless access (FWA), rose by 23.56 million during the quarter to 1,282.33 million, registering a growth of 1.87% over the previous quarter.

Wireless mobile subscribers alone increased by 21.53 million to 1,265.73 million.

However, monthly ARPU for wireless services increased 0.76% to Rs 196.04 in the March quarter from Rs 194.57 in the December quarter.

On a year-on-year basis, wireless ARPU was up 7.15%.

The regulator said prepaid ARPU stood at ₹196.22 per month, while postpaid ARPU was ₹194.31 in the quarter ended March 2026.

The report also showed continued stress in the pay television distribution business. The active subscriber base of pay DTH service providers declined to around 49.05 million as on March 31, 2026, from 50.99 million in the quarter ended December 2025.

In private FM radio, the number of operational channels increased to 390 across 120 cities as of March 31, 2026, from 385 channels across 113 cities in the previous quarter.

Advertisement revenue of private FM radio operators, however, slipped to ₹414.03 crore in the March quarter from ₹419.29 crore in the December quarter.