New Delhi: India’s telecom industry continued to show steady resilience in the quarter ending September, as reflected in the latest Indian Telecom Services Performance Indicator Report released by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) on Wednesday.
The report for Q2 FY26 (July-September 2025) paints a detailed picture of how increasing digital consumption, improved monetisation, and sustained broadband penetration are reshaping the Indian communications landscape.
The biggest highlight comes from the internet subscriber numbers. Total internet subscriptions climbed to 1,017.81 million, up from 1,002.85 million at the end of June 2025, logging a 1.49% quarterly growth. This growth is significant considering the high base India already operates on. Of the 1,070.81 million subscribers reported, 973.39 million remain dependent on wireless connectivity, showcasing the centrality of mobile devices in India’s digital journey, while 44.42 million use wired broadband, driven largely by FTTH (fiber to the home) expansion in urban clusters.
The report also reveals a structural shift: broadband subscribers rose 1.63% to 995.63 million, while narrowband users declined to 22.18 million, underlining how users continue to migrate toward higher-speed services. This transition mirrors India’s increasing consumption of OTT entertainment, cloud services, digital payments, and online education — activities that require deeper and more stable bandwidth.
Conversely, the wireline segment faced a modest setback, with subscribers falling 1.84% to 46.61 million. Yet the year-on-year wireline growth of 26.21% signals strong traction where FTTH adoption is actively accelerating. Wireline tele-density did ease slightly to 3.29%, reflecting that growth remains concentrated in specific high-demand pockets rather than uniformly distributed.
Stronger Monetization
One of the most telling insights from the Trai report is the sustained rise in average revenue per user (ARPU), a critical indicator of the health and pricing power of telecom operators. Wireless ARPU grew 2.34% quarter-on-quarter, rising from Rs 186.62 to Rs 190.99, while showing a robust 10.67% year-on-year increase. This suggests that tariff corrections, premium plan uptake, and rising data consumption continue to improve revenue quality.
The ARPU trend also indicates that Indian consumers are progressively shifting toward higher-value digital services. Prepaid users — the dominant category — reported an ARPU of Rs 189.69, while post-paid subscribers contributed Rs 204.55, reflecting the premium nature of post-paid plans.
Minutes of usage (MOU), however, remained almost static: slipping from 1,006 to 1,005 minutes. This stability suggests that while consumers are paying more per user, their voice+data usage has plateaued, possibly because a large portion of incremental consumption has migrated to data-heavy OTT platforms.
Financially, the sector continued its upward climb. Gross revenue (GR) grew 3.29% to Rs 99,828 crore, while adjusted gross revenue (AGR) rose 1.26% to Rs 82,348 crore. All key revenue indicators — GR, ApGR and AGR — recorded healthy Y-o-Y growth in the range of 6.87% to 9.35%, reaffirming stability in the sector’s earnings ecosystem.
Pass-through charges saw a significant quarterly rise of 9.26%, driven by higher inter-operator settlements and content distribution costs, even though they declined annually. License fees also increased to Rs 6,588 crore, in line with higher adjusted revenues.
Access services — the backbone of Indian telecom — contributed 84.07% of the sector’s AGR, and the segment saw growth across nearly all key parameters, suggesting broad-based industry improvement.
Urban Strength, Rural Challenges
India’s telecom subscriber base expanded to 1,228.94 million from 1,218.36 million, reflecting a steady 0.87% quarterly and 3.22% annual growth rate. Overall tele-density rose from 86.09% to 86.65%, marking another step forward in India’s march toward near-universal connectivity.
Urban India continued to lead the expansion. Urban subscriptions rose to 689.11 million, pushing urban tele-density to 134.76% — a figure that underscores high device penetration and multi-SIM usage in metropolitan regions. This also suggests that the urban markets, though saturated, remain fertile grounds for premium data consumption.
Rural India, however, displayed only incremental gains, rising slightly to 539.83 million subscribers. Rural tele-density inched up to 59.52%, indicating that coverage and affordability gaps continue to impede growth. Notably, the rural share of total subscriptions declined from 44.20% to 43.93%, highlighting the need for deeper penetration and targeted infrastructure deployment under government and operator-led initiatives.
Wireless services, still the dominant mode of connectivity, experienced strong momentum. The wireless (mobile + FWA) subscriber base climbed to 1,182.32 million, adding 11.45 million users. Mobile-only subscriptions reached 1,170.44 million, growing 0.64% during the quarter. Wireless tele-density also improved to 83.36%, reinforcing India’s identity as one of the world’s most mobile-centric digital economies.
The TRAI report for Q2 FY26 underscores a sector that is maturing steadily, marked by consistent broadband expansion, stronger revenue fundamentals, healthy ARPU growth, and stable wireless adoption. While rural connectivity remains an area requiring sustained focus, the overarching narrative is one of a robust and resilient telecom industry that continues to power India’s digital transformation story.