BSNL Surpasses Airtel in New Mobile User Additions After Nearly a Year; Jio Retains Lead in August: TRAI

New Delhi, October 7: State-run telecom operator Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) came above Bharti Airtel in regards to adding new mobile subscribers in August 2025. This is the first time in nearly a year that BSNL has outpaced any other telecom operator. Meanwhile, Reliance Jio maintained its top position, according to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI).

Jio Leads; BSNL Makes Strong Comeback

India’s total telecom subscriber base rose to 122.45 crore at the end of August 2025, up from 122 crore in July. The increase is mainly driven by a net addition of 35.19 lakh new mobile users. When it comes to new additions in the user base, Reliance Jio came first, as it added 19 lakh new customers. Jio was followed by BSNL with 13.85 lakh additions, and then Airtel with 4.96 lakh additions in its user base.

This marks the strongest performance for BSNL since September 2024. It was in September 2024 that when BSNL last outpaced private telecom operators, despite offering only 3G services at that time. The same is the case now, even after only just starting 4G services rollout, it has witnessed a significant addition to its user base.

Meanwhile, Vodafone Idea (Vi) continued to lose its users, reporting a decline of 3.08 lakh mobile subscribers in August.

Jio Tops In The Broadband segment

In the broadband segment, Reliance Jio topped with over 50 crore customers, including both mobile and fixed-line connections. Bharti Airtel followed with 30.9 crore, Vodafone Idea with 12.7 crore, BSNL with 3.43 crore, and Atria Convergence Technologies with 23.5 lakh broadband users.

Wireline Segment Sees Subscriber Shift

In the wireline category, Reliance Jio reported a net decline of 15.5 lakh connections in August. This was largely driven by the reclassification of Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) users as wireless customers. Jio began reporting Unlicensed Band Radio (UBR) FWA subscribers separately from August, with 2.1 million UBR users and 89 lakh 5G FWA subscribers, up from 84 lakh in July.

Growth in the traditional wireline segment was led by:

• Tata Teleservices: +1.17 lakh customers
• Bharti Airtel: +1.08 lakh customers
• Vodafone Idea: +24,215 customers

However, state-run operators BSNL and MTNL continued to lose wireline customers, with MTNL losing 1.87 lakh connections and BSNL losing 5,647 connections during August.

M2M Connections: Airtel Leads with 58.66% Market Share

In the Machine-to-Machine (M2M) communication category, Bharti Airtel topped with 5.26 crore connections, with a 58.66% market share. It was followed by Vodafone Idea (19.4%), Reliance Jio (17.94%), and BSNL (4.01%).

BSNL’s Growing Competitiveness

The strong performance by BSNL showcases that the company is turning around its business, and is effectively tackling growing competitiveness in the telecom sector. It remains to be seen if the company can sustain this performance in September; a time when other private telecom companies have already rolled out their 5G services.

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