Jio and Airtel are neck and neck in the race for new mobile users

Picture two cricket teams chasing the same total, ball by ball, with only a couple of runs between them. That is what India's mobile market looked like in September 2026. Reliance Jio added 2.71 million new mobile users in the month, and Bharti Airtel added 2.69 million, according to data released by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on 27 October 2026. On these rounded figures, the gap between the two giants was only about 20,000 users, a near tie that The Economic Times also pointed out.

The same report had a second headline. India's wireless mobile users crossed 1,300 million for the first time. Here is what the numbers say, and why they matter for the money you spend on recharges.

A country of 1,300 million phone connections

TRAI is the government body that watches over phone and internet companies. Every month, these companies tell TRAI how many users they have, and TRAI puts the totals together in one report.

In its latest report, TRAI said wireless mobile users rose from 1,293.43 million at the end of August to 1,300.00 million at the end of September. That is a growth of 0.51% in one month. Both cities and villages added users.

One thing to know: this count is of connections, not people. Many people carry two SIM cards. The total also includes machine to machine connections, which are SIM cards inside things like card machines, smart meters and cars, talking to other machines without a person on the line.

Who added the most users?

Jio stayed on top. Its mobile user base rose to 511.14 million from 508.43 million in August. Airtel's went up to 494.29 million from 491.60 million.

Vodafone Idea, often called Vi, added 550,119 users and crossed the 200 million mark, reaching 200.12 million. The state-run Bharat Sanchar Nigam added 625,633 users, which was more than Vi did, and reached 94.30 million.

Think of market share like slices of a pizza. If 100 people own phone connections, the share tells you how many of them are with each company. At the end of September, Jio had 39.32% of mobile users, Airtel had 38.02%, Vi had 15.39% and Bharat Sanchar Nigam had 7.26%. So Jio and Airtel together hold more than three of every four connections in the country.

There is another way to look at the race. Bharat Sanchar Nigam grew the fastest in percentage terms, at 0.67% in the month, followed by Airtel at 0.55%, Jio at 0.53% and Vi at 0.28%. A small team that adds a few runs can still have the best run rate.

Why a near tie matters for your recharge

Mobile companies earn money from every user, every month. The industry measures this with a number called ARPU, short for average revenue per user. ARPU is simple: take the money a company earns from mobile users and divide that money equally among all of them. If a samosa stall earns Rs 1,000 from 50 customers in a day, its ARPU is Rs 20 a customer.

TRAI's own figures show that the monthly ARPU for wireless service across the industry rose from Rs 184.91 in the January to March 2026 quarter to Rs 187.12 in the April to June quarter. The companies report their own numbers too. In April to June 2026, Jio's ARPU was Rs 215.6 and Airtel's was Rs 264, the highest in the industry.

Here is the link to your pocket. When two big companies are this close, each one wants to keep its users and win new ones. Raising prices is risky when the rival is right behind. But both also want a bigger ARPU, because building 4G and 5G networks costs a lot of money.

What happened the last time prices went up

India's last big round of price rises came in mid 2024. In June 2024, Jio announced price rises of about 12% to 27%, and Airtel announced a rise of about 10% to 21% a day later, with the new rates starting on 3 July. Jio's popular 84 day unlimited plan went up from Rs 666 to Rs 799. At that time, Airtel said mobile ARPU needed to be above Rs 300 for a healthy business.

Since then, the companies have mostly changed prices in quieter ways. By late 2025, Jio and Airtel had removed their entry level 1 GB per day prepaid plans, so most prepaid data users started at 1.5 GB per day plans priced around Rs 299, up from the old Rs 249 level. That is like a chai stall that stops selling the small cup. The price list looks the same, but the cheapest choice is gone.

No new price rise has been announced with the September numbers. Any talk of the next one is only a guess by analysts, so it is best to wait for the companies to say something officially.

Data keeps getting cheaper per GB

While the price of a pack has crept up, each GB has become cheaper. TRAI says the average money earned for every GB of mobile data fell from Rs 7.51 in January to March 2026 to Rs 7.13 in April to June. At the same time, the average mobile data user used 28.39 GB a month, up from 26.70 GB.

This means people are watching more reels, videos and cricket highlights, and the companies are earning a little less on each GB. That is one more reason they want each user to move to a bigger plan.

Millions want to switch

The September report also showed how many people tried to change their mobile company. About 16.77 million users asked for mobile number portability in the month. Number portability means moving to a new company while keeping the same phone number, like changing schools but keeping your roll number.

The highest number of requests came from Uttar Pradesh (East), with 2.49 million. When so many users are ready to switch, every company has to keep its network and its plans good enough to stop people from leaving.

Watch: the September report, explained

This video walks through TRAI's September 2026 report for Jio, Airtel, Vi and Bharat Sanchar Nigam.

Watch on YouTube

This video, from telecom analyst Parag Kar, looks at the August 2026 numbers, the month before, so the trend is easy to compare.

Watch on YouTube

What to keep an eye on

For now, the race between Jio and Airtel is very close in new users, while Jio still leads in total users and Airtel leads in money earned per user. For a young person with a prepaid SIM, the useful habit is simple: check what a plan gives for its price, and remember that switching companies with the same number is always an option.

Sources

• TRAI press release no. 140 of 2026, telecom user data for September 2026 (27 October 2026)
• The Economic Times: Jio and Airtel almost tie in user growth in September
• TRAI press release no. 135 of 2026, performance indicators for the quarter ending June 2026
• Entrepreneur India: Jio and Airtel kick off FY27 with robust Q1 gains
• Outlook Business: Bharti Airtel raises mobile tariffs by up to 21% (June 2024)
• Digit: Jio and Airtel phase out entry level 1 GB per day plans (November 2025)
• Cover photo: Airtel building with its sign in Pune, by Shrutuja Shirke, CC BY-SA 3.0