India’s broadband subscriber base has steadily expanded over the past year, adding Rs 20 crore to new subscribers at the end of March 2025, reflecting the annual growth rate released by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on Tuesday at 2.17%.
TRAI data shows that among the total 969.1 million Internet subscribers, the number of broadband subscribers was 944.12 million, and as of the end of March 2025, the number of narrowband subscribers was 24.98 million.
The data show that the total number of Internet subscribers increased from 954.4 million at the end of MAR-24 to 969.1 million at the end of MAR-25, with an annual growth rate of 1.54%.
Digital adoptions have increased across the country, driven by wider mobile broadband access, affordable data plans, and growing internet penetration in rural and semi-urban areas.
According to the latest annual performance indicators, annual data show that India’s telecom sector has grown slightly in overall fiscal 2024-25, with a sharp increase in data consumption and revenue stagnant subscriber expansion.
The total number of telephone subscribers in the country increased from 119.28 million at the end of March 2024 to 1200.8 million in March 2025, with an age of 0.13% and an annual growth rate of 0.13%.
However, wireless subscribers fell from 1.1654.9 million to 1.163.76 million, with a net loss of 1.74 million users, a 0.15% drop.
In contrast, wired connections have mild stability, with 37.04 million users by the end of the year.
Despite the subscriber plateau, telecom companies have witnessed strong growth in user spending. The average revenue of wireless services (ARPU) soared to Rs 174.46 from Rs 149.25 in FY24 to Rs 174.46. Prepaid ARPU rose from Rs 146.37 to Rs 173.84, while postpaid ARPU dropped slightly, from Rs 184.63 to Rs 180.86.
User engagement also improved, with each user with average monthly usage minutes (MOUS) rising 3.91% to 1,000 minutes, due to increased use of prepaid users. However, the afterpayment method dropped from 544 minutes per month to 503 minutes.
In terms of data, India added 2.62 billion new wireless data users, up 2.87% from 913.34 million to 939.51 million. Data consumption soared, with total wireless data usage rising 17.46% to 2,28,779 pbabytes (PB). This boosted wireless data revenue by 15.49% to Rs 215,078 crore.
However, TV density reflects telephone connections per 100 people, down from 85.69% to 85.04%, indicating a slight contraction in connectivity growth. Urban TV density dropped from 133.72% to 131.45%, while rural TV density dropped from 59.19% to 59.06%, although the margins of rural and urban subscriptions were small.
The rural market accounted for an increasing share of the total link, with its contribution increasing from 44.52% to 44.53% of all subscribers.
These numbers highlight a sector in the transition, which is marked by increasing digital participation and monetization, but faces saturation in traditional voice and subscriber growth.
