India’s wireless user base grows slightly in April 2025, led by private operators

According to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), telecom subscription data as of 30 April 2025 shows that while state-owned operators BSNL and MTNL lost wireless subscribers during the month, private providers Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio recorded net gains.

The total number of wireless (mobile) subscribers increased by 0.17% month-on-month, rising from 1,156.99 million at the end of March 2025 to 1,158.93 million by the end of April 2025. Including mobile and 5G Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) users, the total wireless customer base rose by 0.23%, from 1,163.76 million to 1,166.43 million over the same period.

The number of wireless 5G FWA users also saw notable growth, increasing from 6.77 million at the end of March to 7.50 million at the end of April. This includes 4.72 million urban and 2.77 million rural subscriptions. As of April 2025, Reliance Jio reported a 5G FWA customer base of 6,141,270 (up by 569,938), while Bharti Airtel recorded 1,357,972 users (up by 160,215). Jio accounted for 2,774,249 rural users alone, bringing the total number of 5G FWA users to 7,499,242.

Reliance Jio added 2,644,838 (2.64 million) mobile users during April, followed by Bharti Airtel with 170,658 (0.17 million) additions. In contrast, Vodafone Idea lost 647,620 subscribers, while public sector units BSNL and MTNL lost 155,000 and 67,668 users, respectively.

As of 30 April 2025, BSNL and MTNL together held a combined market share of just 7.92% of total wireless (mobile) subscribers, compared to 92.08% controlled by private telecom service providers. Reliance Jio led the market with 472.4 million wireless users, representing a 40.76% share, followed by Bharti Airtel with 390 million subscribers (33.65%), Vodafone Idea with 204.7 million (17.66%), BSNL with 90.9 million (7.84%), and MTNL with 0.93 million (0.08%).

In terms of wireless broadband users (fixed and mobile), Jio had 465.10 million users, Airtel had 280.76 million, Vodafone Idea had 125.63 million, and BSNL had 29.94 million. These figures are based on data available as of November 2024.

TRAI also reported that on the peak Visitor Location Register (VLR) date in April 2025, out of 1,158.93 million wireless subscribers, 1,072.73 million were active, indicating an active user rate of approximately 92.56%. Airtel recorded the highest peak VLR at 98.87%, followed by Reliance Jio at 96.64%, Vodafone Idea at 85.10%, BSNL at 61.55%, and MTNL at 47.27%. Active subscriber data is derived from VLR, which reflects the number of subscribers regularly using the network.