India Internet Usage: Broadband Subscribers and Teledensity

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) publishes monthly subscription data and quarterly Performance Indicator reports. Broadband subscribers rose from 1,003.65 million at the end of November 2025 to 1,007.35 million at the end of December 2025 [1]. November 2025 was the first month the base was above 1 billion [2][6]. TRAI says broadband users grew more than sixfold over ten years [6].

TRAI's Performance Indicator report for January-March 2025 shows total internet subscribers fell slightly, from 970.16 million in December 2024 to 969.10 million in March 2025 [3]. A report by IANS on TRAI's later Performance Indicator data puts internet subscribers at 1,028.61 million in December 2025 and 1,092.79 million in March 2026 [4]. Of the March 2026 total, 1,046.26 million were wireless and 46.54 million were wired [4].

In December 2025, mobile wireless access (3G, 4G and 5G handsets and dongles) accounted for 947.30 million broadband subscribers. Fixed wired access had 45.29 million and fixed wireless access had 14.77 million [1]. Fixed wireless access, which includes 5G FWA, grew 5.04% in that one month [1].

Broadband is concentrated. Reliance Jio had 514.35 million broadband subscribers and Bharti Airtel 314.26 million. Vodafone Idea had 128.47 million and BSNL 33.03 million [1]. The top five providers held 98.52% of the market [1].

Overall teledensity was 91.74% in December 2025 when M2M cellular connections are counted, and 84.01% without them [1]. Urban teledensity was 148.92% and rural teledensity was 59.63% [1]. Rural areas held 41.63% of all telephone subscribers [1].

TRAI data for August 2026, as reported by tele.net, shows overall teledensity rising to 95.07% from 94.68% in July 2026 [5].

Monthly figures come from TRAI's Highlights of Telecom Subscription Data, published through PIB [1][2]. Quarterly internet subscriber counts come from TRAI's Indian Telecom Services Performance Indicators [3]. Figures for December 2025 and March 2026 are taken from IANS reporting of TRAI data [4], and August 2026 teledensity from tele.net [5]. All subscriber counts are in millions and count subscriptions, not unique people. One person can hold several connections. Teledensity is subscriptions per 100 inhabitants, so urban values can exceed 100%. Broadband provider data for Bharti Airtel uses November 2025 figures, because it did not submit December 2025 data [1].