Broadband Users Reach 1101.21 Million in India in August 2026

India's broadband base stood at 1101.21 million at the close of August 2026, according to the telecom subscription data put out by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India through the Ministry of Communications. The figure at the end of July 2026 was 1094.48 million, so the month added a little under seven million users, a growth of 0.61 per cent. The numbers are compiled from returns filed by 1579 operators.

Tele-density across the country

Tele-density, which counts telephone connections for every hundred people, came to 95.07 per cent for the country as a whole when machine-to-machine cellular connections are included. Wireless alone contributed 91.69 per cent of that and wireline 3.39 per cent. Leaving machine-to-machine connections out, the overall figure works out to 85.26 per cent, with wireless at 81.87 per cent.

The town and village gap

Urban tele-density stood at 155.00 per cent, which is more than one connection for every resident and reflects the habit of holding a second line. The wireless part of the urban figure was 146.66 per cent and the wireline part 8.34 per cent. Rural tele-density was far lower at 61.12 per cent, made up of 60.55 per cent wireless and 0.58 per cent wireline. Urban subscribers accounted for 58.96 per cent of the total base and rural subscribers for 41.04 per cent.

How fast the base grew

Total telephone subscribers grew 0.47 per cent over the month. Urban connections rose 0.70 per cent while rural connections rose only 0.15 per cent, so the growth of the month came mostly from the towns.

Portability and active users

Requests for Mobile Number Portability came to 15.83 million during August 2026. Active wireless subscribers on the date of peak Visitor Location Register numbered 1207.59 million, a count of connections actually in use rather than of every connection on the books.

Key figures

Tele-density here is worked out on population projections taken from the report of the technical group on population projections for India and the states, 2011 to 2036, published in August 2020.