India Adds 5.5 Million Mobile Subscribers in August, Lifting Total Base

India added 5.5 million mobile subscribers in August 2026, lifting its mobile base to 1.293 billion, according to TRAI; Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel accounted for more than 4.5 million of the additions. Urban mobile subscriptions grew faster than rural subscriptions, while Vodafone Idea and BSNL also added users and MTNL lost subscribers. The broadband base crossed 1.1 billion, gaining about 6.73 million subscribers during the month. Wireline subscriptions rose by 440,000 to 48.45 million, though access remained heavily concentrated in urban areas. Some 15.83 million subscribers requested mobile number portability, while 5G fixed-wireless access subscriptions grew by about 245,000 to 13.45 million.
India’s overall tele-density rose to 95.07% in August from 94.68% in July; urban tele-density was 155%, compared with 61.12% in rural areas.
The number of active wireless mobile subscribers, measured on the date of peak Visitor Location Register (VLR), was 1,207.59 million in August. The 15.83 million mobile-number-portability requests represented about 1.3% of that active base.
Rural areas accounted for 51.9% of India’s 5G fixed-wireless-access subscribers in August, with 6.98 million users, compared with 6.47 million in urban areas. Jio added 148,870 5G FWA users during the month and Airtel added 96,339.
The urban–rural divide in wireline access was pronounced: urban wireline tele-density was 8.34%, versus 0.58% in rural areas. Urban subscribers made up 89.08% of all wireline users, while rural subscribers accounted for 10.92%.
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