TRAI Subscriber Data September 2026: Jio, Airtel Lead Gains

TRAI subscriber data for September 2026 shows India’s telephone base rose to 1,367.93 million, a net gain of 7.23 million in the month, with Jio (2.71 million) and Airtel (2.69 million) adding the most mobile users.

TRAI subscriber data September 2026: key numbers

Total telephone subscribers: 1,367.93 million, up from 1,360.70 million in August (0.53% monthly growth).
Wireless (mobile plus fixed wireless): 1,319.19 million, up 6.94 million. Wireline: 48.74 million, up 0.29 million.
Mobile connections: 1,300.00 million including 144.85 million machine-to-machine (M2M) SIMs. Without M2M, the count is 1,155.15 million.
Overall tele-density: 95.52%. Urban wireless grew 0.69% and rural wireless 0.31%.
Broadband (wired and wireless): 1,107.68 million, up 0.59%. 5G fixed wireless access rose to 13.61 million from 13.45 million.

Who gained mobile subscribers in September

Jio: +2,712,632 net additions, 39.32% share of mobile subscribers.
Airtel: +2,692,096, 38.02% share.
BSNL: +625,633, 7.25% share. Its 0.67% monthly growth was the fastest among the four main operators.
Vodafone Idea: +550,119, 15.39% share.
MTNL lost 6,628 subscribers.

Number porting and active users

16.77 million Mobile Number Portability requests were made in September, against 15.83 million in August.
1,212.80 million mobile users (93.29% of the base) were active on the date of peak VLR, TRAI’s measure of active users.
Active share by operator: Airtel 98.94%, Jio 98.67%, Vodafone Idea 83.85%, BSNL 54.46%.

What this means for you

The headline total includes 144.85 million M2M SIMs used by devices, so it overstates the number of people with a phone. The active-user share is a better guide to how many connections are really in use. TRAI compiles these figures from data supplied by the operators.