TRAI Data: 6.57 Million Mobile Users Added in September 2026

India added 6.57 million mobile subscribers in September 2026, lifting the wireless base to 1,300 million from 1,293.43 million in August, according to the monthly subscription data the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) released on 27 October. Reliance Jio added 2.71 million users and Bharti Airtel 2.69 million, while MTNL was the only operator to lose subscribers. The figures, also carried in a Press Information Bureau release, cover the month ended 30 September.

BSNL Grows Fastest, MTNL Loses Users

BSNL added about 0.63 million subscribers, a monthly growth of 0.67 per cent, the highest among the operators. Vodafone Idea added 0.55 million, or 0.28 per cent. MTNL lost 6,628 users. Mobile number portability requests in the month stood at 16.77 million, and active wireless mobile subscribers were 1,212.80 million.

Cities Add Users Faster Than Villages

Urban wireless subscribers rose from 748.84 million to 753.85 million, a 0.67 per cent increase. Rural subscribers went from 544.58 million to 546.14 million, up 0.29 per cent. Overall tele-density, the number of connections per 100 people, moved from 95.07 per cent to 95.52 per cent. It stands at about 155.85 per cent in urban areas and 61.30 per cent in rural areas.

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Broadband Passes 1.1 Billion Connections

Total telephone subscribers, wireless and wireline together, grew from 1,360.70 million to 1,367.93 million. Wireline connections rose by 0.29 million to 48.74 million. Broadband subscribers increased 0.59 per cent, from 1,101.21 million to 1,107.68 million.

The earlier months of this year show the same pattern of steady additions led by Jio and Airtel. Jio, whose parent company Jio Platforms is due to list on 28 October, is the largest operator by subscriber count. TRAI publishes the figures every month; the October numbers are next in the series. More reports are in our Daily Updates section.

Source: PIB release on telecom subscription figures, end-September 2026. Also based on reporting by ANI and Beebom.

Image: Beebom Gadgets.