New Delhi: The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has released fresh telecom subscription figures for May 2025, offering a detailed look at how India’s telecom market is growing across cities and villages. The total telephone subscriber base has reached 1207.08 million, with urban areas showing higher momentum compared to rural regions.
Wireless services, which include both regular mobile and 5G fixed wireless access (FWA), continued to dominate with 1168.42 million subscribers, while wireline connections showed rare growth, crossing 38.66 million users. Interestingly, wireline tele-density, often seen as stagnant, showed a 3.34% monthly growth, driven by both urban demand and improved reporting by service providers.
Broadband sees big leap, 5G FWA still lags
One of the more notable developments in May was the sharp jump in broadband subscriptions, which rose by over 31 million in just a month. The overall broadband base now stands at 974.87 million, up 3.37% from April.
A major reason for this spike was that Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel resumed submitting their subscriber data in the correct format, after missing several months. As a result, the count reflects a backlog of updated numbers.
Breaking it down:
- Mobile broadband leads the pack with 922.99 million users
- Wired broadband grew from 41.41 million to 44.09 million
- Fixed wireless broadband like 5G FWA jumped from 4.87 million to 7.79 million, a 60% spike on paper
But there’s a catch. Despite the growth in numbers, 5G FWA subscribers actually dropped slightly from 7.50 million to 7.40 million. This dip hints that some of the earlier reported surge may not be entirely reflective of user stickiness.
Jio, Airtel continue to dominate the broadband race
As of May 31, Reliance Jio led the broadband segment with 494.47 million users, followed by Bharti Airtel at 302.15 million, and Vodafone Idea with 126.68 million. The top five players account for 98.47% of all broadband connections in the country.
In the wired broadband segment, Jio (13.51M) and Airtel (9.26M) were again the biggest contributors. State-run BSNL came in third with 4.32 million connections.
For mobile broadband and fixed wireless combined, Jio held a market share of 480.96 million, with Airtel at 292.89 million, and Vi at 126.67 million.
Rural growth slows, metros slip in wireless
India’s rural wireless segment seems to be hitting a saturation point. While the total rural telephone subscriber base inched up to 537.39 million, the monthly growth rate was just 0.14%. Urban areas added nearly double that number during the same period.
In fact, the wireless subscriber base in metro circles including Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, and Assam actually shrank in May. Delhi, which still boasts the highest tele-density at 274.29%, saw a dip of over 550,000 wireless connections.
The total number of active wireless users stood at 1080.06 million, meaning around 93% of subscribers were active at peak usage times, as per VLR data.
14 million people ported mobile numbers in May
In yet another sign of churn in the mobile market, over 14.03 million users submitted requests for Mobile Number Portability (MNP) in May. UP-East and Maharashtra saw the most porting activity in Zone-I, while MP and Karnataka topped the charts in Zone-II.