Nagaland loses 2 lakh internet connections in a year as India grows: TRAI

Nagaland lost around two lakh internet subscriptions in the year to March 2026, even as the number of internet users across India grew by more than 12%, according to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India's (TRAI) Indian Telecom Services Yearly Performance Indicators for 2025-26, as analysed by The Morung Express.

The state's internet subscriptions dropped from about 1.66 million in March 2025 to 1.46 million in March 2026, a fall of roughly 12%. Total telephone subscriptions, wireline and wireless together, slipped by about 5.2%, from 1.74 million to 1.65 million.

Rural internet hit hardest

Almost all of the internet decline came from rural Nagaland. Rural internet connections fell by 20.4%, from 9.8 lakh to 7.8 lakh, while urban internet subscriptions stayed flat at 6.8 lakh.

Phone connections fell in both rural and urban areas: rural subscriptions dropped from 9.2 lakh to 8.8 lakh (down 4.3%) and urban ones from 8.3 lakh to 7.7 lakh (down 7.2%).

As a result, Nagaland's telephone tele-density, the number of connections per 100 people, fell from 76.50 to 71.80. Internet density dropped more sharply, from 72.90 to 63.58 connections per 100 people. Broadband, which makes up nearly all internet connections in the state, fell from about 1.64 million to 1.45 million.

Wireless connections still dominate, accounting for 1.61 million of the 1.65 million phone subscriptions; only about 40,000 were wireline.

A reversal of earlier growth

The new numbers undo the gains of the previous two years. Phone subscriptions had risen from 1.65 million in March 2023 to 1.74 million in March 2025, and are now back at the 2023 level. Internet subscriptions, which had grown from 1.58 million to 1.66 million, are now about 7.6% below where they were in March 2023.

Nationally, the trend went the other way. Total telephone subscriptions rose 10.81% to 1,330.58 million, and internet subscriptions rose 12.76% to 1,092.79 million, with growth in both rural and urban India. TRAI noted that Bharti Airtel had added its machine-to-machine (M2M) cellular connections to its 2025-26 figures, which affects year-on-year comparisons of national wireless numbers.

Public Wi-Fi use also down

Nagaland had 83 public Wi-Fi hotspots with 268 access points as of March 2026. In the quarter covered by the report, they recorded 2,941 unique users and 37 TB of data, down from 6,254 users and 54 TB a year earlier. TRAI also reported a national fall in public Wi-Fi users, which it largely attributed to RailTel.

The report does not explain why Nagaland's numbers fell. Subscription counts reflect active connections reported by operators, so changes can also come from operators removing inactive SIMs, rather than people going offline.