Bharti Airtel Leads Subscriber Additions In April, Beats Jio In Both Wireless And Wireline Segment

India's total telecom subscriber base crossed a fresh all-time high of 133.75 crore at the end of April 2026, adding 69.5 lakh net new connections during the month, according to data released by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India on Tuesday.

Bharti Airtel came out on top for the month, adding 34.82 lakh net new subscribers across both wireless and wireline segments, ahead of Reliance Jio's 30.84 lakh additions. It was a clean sweep for Airtel as the company outpaced Jio in mobile connections as well as fixed-line additions during the same period.

How Each Operator Performed

• Bharti Airtel: 34.82 lakh net additions, 31.39 lakh wireless and 3.43 lakh wireline.

• Reliance Jio: 30.84 lakh net additions, 29.42 lakh wireless and 1.42 lakh wireline.

• Vodafone Idea: 53,257 net additions.

• Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited: 76,175 net additions.

• Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited: Lost 33,403 subscribers.

• Tata Teleservices: Lost 82,407 customers.

Wireless And Wireline

The wireless subscriber base, covering mobile and fixed wireless access connections, grew to 128.89 crore at the end of April from 128.23 crore in March. Wireline connections rose to 4.85 crore from 4.82 crore over the same period.

All three private telecom operators and BSNL added wireline subscribers, while MTNL and Tata Teleservices lost subscribers in the segment.

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Broadband

Total broadband subscribers reached 107.34 crore at the end of April 2026. Reliance Jio led the category with 52.69 crore subscribers, followed by Airtel at 37.3 crore, Vodafone Idea at 12.8 crore, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited at 2.7 crore and Atria Convergence at 24.2 lakh.

The data shows that private telecom operators continued to dominate the broadband market during the month. Jio and Airtel together accounted for a major share of the overall subscriber base.

Sources:

CNBC TV18

NDTV