Reliance Jio continues its market dominance, adding 1.6 million wireless subscribers in January 2026 and leading the home broadband segment with strong JioAirFiber growth, according to a JM Financial report on India's recovering telecom sector.
Reliance Jio has recorded healthy wireless subscriber additions and continues to maintain its leadership in the home broadband segment, according to a report by JM Financial.
Telecom Subscriber Additions in January 2026
The report noted that the telecom industry's overall net wireless subscriber additions--excluding machine-to-machine (M2M) subscribers and 5G fixed wireless access (FWA)--continued to recover in January 2026. The industry added 2.4 million wireless subscribers in January 2026, compared with 1.5 million in December 2025, 0.9 million in November 2025 and 0.4 million in October 2025.
Among telecom operators, Reliance Jio Infocomm added 1.6 million subscribers, Bharti Airtel added 1.2 million, while Bharat Sanchar Nigam added 0.4 million subscribers. In contrast, Vodafone Idea lost 0.7 million subscribers during the same period.
Jio's Performance Highlights
The report highlighted that Jio's net overall wireless subscriber gain, excluding M2M subscribers, stood at 1.6 million in January 2026, slightly lower than 1.8 million in December 2025. Its Visitor Location Register (VLR), a measure of active subscribers, remained steady month-on-month at 98.3 per cent in January 2026.
Leadership in Home Broadband
In the home broadband segment, which includes fibre-to-the-home (FTTH), UBR and 5G FWA, Jio continued to register strong subscriber additions in January 2026. This growth was driven by the company's aggressive expansion of JioAirFiber using UBR technology. JM Financial stated "Jio continued to add robust 0.78mn home broadband subs in Jan'26 driven by its aggressive push of JioAirFiber"
In the 5G FWA sub-segment, excluding UBR, Jio added 0.25 million subscribers in January 2026, compared with 0.28 million in December 2025. Despite a slight moderation, the company continued to lead this segment with a market share of 70.9 per cent at the end of January 2026.
Overall Market Share (TRAI Data)
As per TRAI data, Reliance Jio remains the largest telecom service provider in India. In the wireless (fixed wireless and mobile) access broadband category, Jio had a subscriber base of 503.57 million as of January 31, 2026, followed by Bharti Airtel with 348.91 million and Vodafone Idea with 128.97 million.
In the fixed wired access broadband segment, Jio led with 13.99 million subscribers, followed by Bharti Airtel at 10.38 million and BSNL at 4.47 million.
Overall, in the combined broadband (wired and wireless) segment, Jio had a total subscriber base of 517.56 million, compared with 359.29 million for Bharti Airtel and 128.97 million for Vodafone Idea.
The total number of wireless subscribers in India increased to 1266.34 million at the end of January 2026, up from 1258.77 million at the end of December 2025, reflecting a continued recovery in the telecom sector. (ANI)
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by Asianet Newsable English staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)