Bharti Airtel has maintained its lead in the subscriber growth for the third month in a row with over 48.5 lakh net new customer additions in February, according to Trai data released on Wednesday.
The company pipped its rival Reliance Jio in net subscriber addition in the wireline segment as well during the reported month.
The total telecom subscriber base grew by 73.1 lakh in February to an all-time high of 132.13 crore, according to the monthly subscribers report released by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai).
"The number of total telephone subscribers in India increased from 1314 million at the end of January 2026 to 1321.31 million at the end of February 2026, thereby showing a monthly growth rate of 0.56 per cent," the Trai monthly subscriber report said.
Airtel's net new subscriber addition stood at 50.88 lakh, comprising 48.5 lakh in the wireless or mobile segment and 2.31 lakh in the wireline segment, in February 2026.
Jio net subscriber addition stood at 17.41 lakh, which includes 16.24 new mobile connections and 1.17 lakh wireline connections. The wireless subscriber base, which includes mobile and Fixed Wireless Access connections, increased to 127.33 crore at the end of February 2026 from 126.63 crore at the end of January 2026.
Vodafone Idea (Vi) added 21927 new subscribers. The growth in the segment was mitigated with state-run telecom firms BSNL and MTNL losing 1.01 lakh and 2701 subscribers, respectively.
The number of wireline subscribers increased to 4.79 crore at the end of February 2026 from 4.76 crore at the end of January 2026.
While private telecom operators Airtel, Reliance Jio, Tata Teleservices, Vi, Quadrant etc gained subscribers, state-run telecom firm BSNL and MTNL continued to see erosion in their subscriber base. BSNL was the biggest loser in the wireline segment as well.
The state-run telecom firm lost 45,619 subscribers. The total number of broadband subscribers in the country increased to 105.9 crore at the end of February 2026 from 105.27 million at the end of January 2026.
Reliance Jio led the segment with 51.96 crore subscribers. It was followed by Airtel with 36.4 crore subscribers, Vi 12.93 crore, BSNL 2.8 crore and Atria Convergence with 29.8 lakh subscribers.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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