Airtel added about 1.66 crore mobile subscribers between April and September 2026, more than any other operator, while Jio added about 1.48 crore, according to TRAI’s monthly subscription data. Jio, however, led the additions in August and September.
Vi and BSNL, which barely grew in the spring, picked up through the summer. Vi went from 53,257 additions in April to 5.5 lakh in September, and BSNL from a loss in May to 6.3 lakh in September. April’s figures are from TRAI’s press release, and July to September from tele.net’s reports of TRAI data for July, August and September.
Mobile users added each month, April to September 2026 (lakh)
| Month | Airtel | Jio | Vi | BSNL |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| April | 31.4 | 29.4 | 0.5 | 0.8 |
| May | 29.3 | 21.5 | 1.2 | -1.1 |
| June | 29.9 | 21.5 | 1.6 | 0.9 |
| July | 26.8 | 24.4 | 2.4 | 1.7 |
| August | 21.1 | 24.0 | 5.1 | 4.9 |
| September | 26.9 | 27.1 | 5.5 | 6.3 |
| Base, end of September | 49.43 crore | 51.11 crore | 20.01 crore | 9.43 crore |
| Share, end of September | 38.02% | 39.32% | 15.39% | 7.25% |
What six months of data show
Market share barely moved. Airtel went from 37.81% in April to 38.02% in September and Jio from 39.25% to 39.32%, while Vi slipped from 15.61% to 15.39% and BSNL from 7.31% to 7.25%. Vi and BSNL are adding users, but not fast enough to hold their share.
The rural picture is less even. Vi lost rural subscribers in each of July, August and September, and Airtel lost about 4.8 lakh rural users in August before adding 4.4 lakh in September. Jio added close to 10 lakh rural users in each of those three months.
Switching is steady too, with about 1.6 crore number portability requests in each of July and August and 1.68 crore in September. These totals count SIMs, not people: TRAI’s figures include machine-to-machine connections, which made up about 8.4 crore of Airtel’s base and 2.7 crore of Jio’s by July, TelecomTalk reported. The monthly reports for April, May and June have more detail, including active-user figures.
Why it matters for mobile shops
Airtel and Jio took about nine in ten of the new users added by the four main operators over these six months, so their SIMs and recharges remain most of the demand. Vi and BSNL’s monthly additions rose in each month from July to September, so it is worth checking local demand for their SIMs rather than assuming customers only want Airtel or Jio. With about 1.6 crore porting requests a month, the steps in the number porting guide are a common customer question at the counter.
