**BSNL Surpasses Bharti Airtel in New Mobile Customer Addition; Reliance Jio Leads Overall Subscriber Growth in August**
*New Delhi:* State-owned BSNL has overtaken Bharti Airtel in new mobile customer additions after nearly a year, while Reliance Jio continued to dominate the subscriber growth chart in August, according to data released by telecom regulator TRAI on Monday.
The total number of telephone subscribers in India rose to 122.45 crore by the end of August, up from 122 crore in July. This growth was primarily driven by a net addition of 35.19 lakh new mobile customers during the month.
Reliance Jio led the growth in mobile subscribers by adding over 19 lakh new customers in August. BSNL closely followed with 13.85 lakh new customers, and Bharti Airtel added 4.96 lakh, the data revealed.
Earlier, in September 2024, BSNL had surpassed all telecom operators in new customer additions following a tariff hike by private players, despite providing only 3G services at the time. The state-owned company has since launched its 4G services nationwide, further boosting its subscriber base.
On the other hand, Vodafone Idea was the biggest loser in the mobile segment, witnessing a decline of 3.08 lakh net subscribers in August.
In the broadband segment, Reliance Jio led the market with over 50 crore customers across its mobile and fixed-line connections. Bharti Airtel followed with 30.9 crore broadband connections, Vodafone Idea with 12.7 crore, BSNL with 3.43 crore, and Atria Convergence reported 23.5 lakh broadband users.
However, in the wireline segment, Reliance Jio experienced a decline of 15.5 lakh customers. This drop is attributed to the recategorization of fixed wireless access (FWA) subscribers, who were previously counted under the wireline segment but are now reported separately as wireless customers. From August onward, Reliance Jio began reporting the number of UBR (unlicensed band radio) FWA subscribers.
Wireless 5G FWA subscribers increased to 89 lakh at the end of August 2025, up from 84 lakh in July. Additionally, UBR FWA subscriptions stood at 21 lakh as of August 2025.
Tata Teleservices led growth in the wireline segment with a net addition of 1.17 lakh subscribers, followed by Bharti Airtel with 1.08 lakh new users and Vodafone Idea with 24,215 customers. Meanwhile, state-owned operators BSNL and MTNL continued to see declines in wireline connections, with MTNL losing 1.87 lakh and BSNL shedding 5,647 customers.
In the machine-to-machine (M2M) cellular mobile connections category, Bharti Airtel remained the leader with 5.26 crore connections, holding a market share of 58.66%. Vodafone Idea, Reliance Jio Infocom Limited, and BSNL followed with 19.4%, 17.94%, and 4.01% shares, respectively.
*Disclaimer: This story is from the syndicated feed. No changes have been made except the headline.*
https://www.freepressjournal.in/business/bsnl-surpasses-airtel-in-new-mobile-customer-additions-jio-maintains-lead-trai-data
