Airtel, Jio, BSNL Add Subscribers in August 2025; Vodafone Idea, MTNL See Decline: TRAI

New Delhi, October 7 (Udaipur Kiran): India’s telecom sector continued its growth momentum in August 2025, with Bharti Airtel, Reliance Jio, and BSNL adding new wireless subscribers, while Vodafone Idea (Vi) and MTNL registered declines, according to the latest TRAI Telecom Subscription Data.

The total wireless subscriber base rose from 1,163.51 million in July 2025 to 1,167.03 million in August 2025, marking a 0.30% monthly growth. Including fixed wireless access (FWA) users, the total wireless subscriber base stood at 1,178.03 million, a 0.52% growth.

📈 Subscriber Gains and Losses

• Reliance Jio: +1.94 million

• BSNL: +1.38 million (boosted by Re 1 4G SIM offer)

• Bharti Airtel: +0.49 million

• Vodafone Idea (Vi): -0.31 million

• MTNL: -2,051

📊 Market Share (as of August 31, 2025)

• Reliance Jio: 41.08% (479.5 million subscribers)

• Bharti Airtel: 33.59% (392 million subscribers)

• Vodafone Idea: 17.44% (203.55 million subscribers)

• BSNL: 7.86% (91.75 million subscribers)

• MTNL: 0.03% (0.30 million subscribers)

Private operators together account for 92.11% of the market, while PSUs (BSNL + MTNL) hold 7.89%.

🌐 5G and UBR Fixed Wireless Access (FWA)

For the first time, TRAI reported 5G FWA and UBR FWA subscriber data separately:

• 5G FWA subscribers: 8.90 million (Urban: 5.27M, Rural: 3.63M)

• UBR FWA subscribers: 2.10 million (Urban: 1.51M, Rural: 0.59M)

Operator-wise 5G FWA (as of August 2025):

• Reliance Jio: 6.76 million

• Bharti Airtel: 2.14 million

📡 Broadband Subscribers

• Reliance Jio: 488.31 million

• Bharti Airtel: 299.54 million

• Vodafone Idea: 127.47 million

• BSNL: 29.93 million

🧠 M2M (Machine-to-Machine) Connections

• Airtel: 52.61 million (58.66% share)

• Vodafone Idea: 17.40 million (19.40% share)

• Reliance Jio: 16.09 million (17.94% share)

• BSNL: 3.59 million (4.01% share)

Total M2M connections: 89.70 million, up from 84.62 million in July.

📞 Active Subscribers (VLR Data)

Out of 1,167.03 million total wireless users, 1,086.18 million were active — about 93.07%.

• Airtel: 99.52%

• Jio: 97.78%

• Vi: 84.26%

• BSNL: 60.38%

• MTNL: 124.41% (due to multi-SIM and roaming usage)

🔌 Wireline Segment

Wireline subscribers fell from 48.11 million (July) to 46.51 million (August), a -3.34% decline.

• Jio: 13.95M (30% share, lost 1.55M)

• Airtel: 10.56M (22.72% share, added 108K)

• BSNL: 7.52M (16.18% share, lost 5.6K)

• Vi: 0.77M (1.67% share, added 24K)

The update coincides with the Supreme Court deferring the AGR dues hearing to October 13, following a request from Solicitor General Tushar Mehta.