MUMBAI: India’s telecom scene in March 2025 was a tale of two Indias—rural Bharat rising on data dreams and legacy players like BSNL and MTNL gasping for bars. According to TRAI’s fresh data, it was a month of gains for mobile and broadband, and growing static for DTH.

The total number of wireless subscribers climbed slightly to 1,160.65 million, with rural India accounting for nearly 80 per cent of new additions. Villages added 1.1 million users, urban India added just 296,000—proof that the real action is beyond city limits.

Reliance Jio was on fire, gaining 2.15 million wireless users and reinforcing its market leadership with 39.6 per cent share. Bharti Airtel added 1.03 million, keeping pace. Vodafone Idea lost nearly 700,000 subscribers, and BSNL continued its freefall with a 1.25 million loss.

India’s broadband subscriber base touched 946.32 million, a monthly growth of 0.21 per cent. Unsurprisingly, 4G/5G mobile broadband accounted for 921.4 million of those connections—soaring on reels, reels, and more reels.

On the wireline broadband front, Jio continued to hustle, adding over 320,000 subscribers, bringing its fixed-line share to 33.6 per cent. Airtel stayed solid with over 100,000 adds, while government dinosaurs BSNL and MTNL lost tens of thousands more. Between sluggish service and vanishing relevance, they’ve become the landline’s last rites.

In the home entertainment arena, the direct-to-home (DTH) sector saw a slide. Total active DTH subscribers dropped to 64.17 million from 64.45 million—a fall of over 278,000 users in just one month.

Cord-cutting is no longer a western trend; it's happening across Indian homes as OTT apps and smart TVs eat into satellite’s share. Operators like Tata Play and Airtel Digital are still holding their ground, but the writing is on the (living room) wall.

The big takeaway? Rural India is dialling up, streaming more, and finally enjoying digital parity. Jio’s aggressive expansion is paying off across both mobile and fibre, while BSNL’s steady subscriber bleed raises existential questions.

DTH is beginning to look like the landline of television. The OTT wave is here, and it’s pulling viewers—and revenue—away from satellite.

With spectrum auctions around the corner and AI-fuelled data demands skyrocketing, India’s telecom race is less about who picks up the call—and more about who controls the cloud.