Bharti Airtel Vs Jio Vs Vodafone Idea: Who Won India's July Mobile Subscriber Race?

Reliance Jio remains the largest operator with over 50 crore users, followed by Airtel and Vodafone Idea, while private players hold over 92% market share.

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Bharti Airtel Leads Mobile Subscriber Growth In India July 2026
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Summary is AI-generated, newsroom-reviewed
  • India's wireless mobile subscriber base grew by 55.38 lakh to 128.79 crore in July 2026
  • Bharti Airtel added 26.88 lakh users, leading monthly subscriber additions
  • Jio remained largest operator with 50.60 crore subscribers and 39.29% market share
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India's wireless mobile subscriber base rose by 55.38 lakh in July 2026 to 128.79 crore from 128.24 crore in June, registering monthly growth of 0.43%, according to data released by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI).

Bharti Airtel led subscriber additions during the month, adding 26.88 lakh users, ahead of Reliance Jio's 24.47 lakh. Vodafone Idea added 2.40 lakh subscribers, while state-run BSNL gained 1.69 lakh.

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Jio, however, remained India's largest mobile operator with 50.60 crore subscribers and a 39.29% market share. Airtel followed with 48.95 crore users and a 38.01% share. Vodafone Idea had 19.91 crore subscribers, while BSNL's base stood at 9.32 crore. Private operators together accounted for 92.75% of mobile subscribers.

TRAI's mobile subscriber count includes machine-to-machine cellular connections. Excluding M2M connections, consumer mobile SIMs stood at 115.02 crore in July.

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Urban Subscribers

Urban mobile subscribers increased to 74.37 crore from 73.94 crore, while the rural base rose to 54.43 crore from 54.30 crore. Overall mobile tele-density increased to 90.04% from 89.71% in June.

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Of the 128.79 crore reported mobile subscribers, 120.40 crore were active on the date of peak visitor location register, representing 93.48% of the total base. Airtel recorded the highest active-subscriber ratio among the four major operators at 99.12%, followed by Jio at 98.82%.

Mobile Portability

Mobile number portability activity also increased, with about 1.60 crore subscribers submitting porting requests in July, up from about 1.48 crore in June. UP East recorded the highest MNP requests at 22.95 lakh.

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All licensed service areas except Kolkata reported subscriber growth. Karnataka added 5.23 lakh users, followed by Gujarat at 5.22 lakh, while Kolkata lost 17,107 subscribers.

Mobile wireless broadband connections rose 0.59% month-on-month to 102.75 crore.

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