India’s state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Restricted (BSNL) has emerged as India’s prime fixed-line Web supplier for FY2026, overtaking Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel in a big shift in community efficiency rankings. In keeping with French testing agency nPerf’s newest barometer, BSNL scored 89,174 nPoints, forward of Airtel (74,975) and Jio (73,957), marking an increase from second place final 12 months.
“This development displays a constant upward development that nPerf has noticed throughout 5 consecutive years of measurement. BSNL now leads throughout each key efficiency indicator within the general class, with a very hanging enchancment in obtain pace (Mbps), which surged by 21% in comparison with the earlier 12 months, reaching 78.53 Mbps general and 198.54 Mbps on FTTH connections,” says the report.
The report positioned BSNL on prime when it comes to obtain pace, add pace and latency. Whereas Airtel ranked final among the many three, Jio claimed the highest spot in streaming expertise.
A key purpose for BSNL’s soar is that there was a big enchancment in its fiber community, as a part of its revival packages. In 2024, Dr Pemmasani Chandra Shekhar, Minister of State for Communications and Rural Growth, knowledgeable the Parliament that “BSNL and MTNL have laid greater than 8,96,000 route kms of Optical Fiber Cable community within the nation. As well as, greater than 6,89,000 kilometers OFC has been laid within the rural and distant areas of the nation underneath BharatNet Venture. BSNL/MTNL are repeatedly increasing and upgrading their OFC networks.”
BSNL’s merger with BharatNet allowed it to entry the latter’s fiber community, which helped it enhance its protection. As well as, in line with the Division of Telecommunications (DoT) year-end report for 2025, “BSNL has accelerated Capex funding within the final two years to improve its community and telecom infra pan India. An enormous funding has been achieved in transmission tools and optical fiber cable (OFC) community.” Clearly, these efforts are yielding outcomes.
In keeping with the most recent TRAI information, the mounted wired broadband phase is dominated by Reliance Jio with 14.10 million subscribers, adopted by Airtel with 10.54 million and BSNL with 4.43 million subscribers. Which means BSNL dominates in expertise regardless of being a distant third when it comes to the variety of customers. The nPerf outcomes are significantly important for BSNL, which is usually seen as bureaucratic and lagging in know-how adoption.
Airtel dominates cell Web
Whereas BSNL leads the fixed-line phase, Airtel dominates the cell Web in India with a rating of 63,725 nPoints, transferring from second place within the earlier monetary 12 months. Airtel is adopted by Jio with 58,484 nPoints, Vodafone Thought with 43,939 nPoints and BSNL with 27,453 nPoints.
“The operator [Airtel] leads on each KPI general, posting a Obtain pace (Mb/s) of 62.4 and Add pace (Mb/s) of 10.2, alongside the most effective Latency (ms) at 63.32 ms. On 5G, Airtel retains the highest place for the fourth consecutive 12 months, main in Obtain pace (Mb/s) at 113.8, Add pace (Mb/s) at 16.8 and Latency (ms) at 59.0 ms – and is actively widening its lead over opponents each general and on 5G,” mentioned nPerf’s press launch.
“India’s cell market is getting into a brand new part of competitors, the place sustained community funding is translating into measurable enhancements for customers throughout all operators – and the place the leaders are setting a progressively larger benchmark for your entire sector,” mentioned Renaud Keradec, president of nPerf.
