Bharti Airtel delivered strong financial and operational performance for the quarter ended December 31, 2025, reporting robust growth in revenue, rising ARPU, expanding subscriber base and continued investment in network and digital infrastructure.
Revenue growth driven by India and Africa
Bharti Airtel posted revenue of Rs 53,982 crore, rising 19.6 percent year-on-year and 3.5 percent quarter-on-quarter, supported by strong growth in India and solid performance in Africa.
India remained the key growth engine:
India revenue reached Rs 39,226 crore, up 13.2 percent year-on-year and 1.4 percent sequentially.
Growth was driven by mobile premiumization, strong Homes segment momentum and steady Airtel Business performance.
Africa also delivered strong momentum, with revenue in constant currency growing 24.7 percent year-on-year.
The company’s overall customer base reached approximately 645 million across 15 countries, including 466 million customers in India and about 179 million in Africa.
Bharti Airtel reported strong improvement across profitability metrics:
Consolidated EBITDA: Rs 31,144 crore, up 25.2 percent year-on-year
EBITDA margin: 57.7 percent
EBITDAaL: Rs 27,705 crore, up 29 percent year-on-year
EBITDAaL margin: 51.3 percent
EBIT: Rs 17,654 crore, up 34.5 percent year-on-year
Net income before exceptional items: Rs 6,920 crore
Net debt to EBITDAaL ratio improved to 1.02 times, highlighting balance sheet strength.
ARPU rises and mobile subscriber quality improves
Airtel continued to benefit from premiumization and increased smartphone adoption.
Key mobile metrics:
Mobile ARPU rose to Rs 259 from Rs 245 a year earlier
Smartphone data customers increased by 20.8 million year-on-year and 5.2 million sequentially.
Smartphone users now account for 79 percent of total mobile customers.
Postpaid subscribers grew by 0.62 million.
Mobile data consumption surged 29.2 percent year-on-year to 29.8 GB per user per month.
India mobile revenue increased 9.1 percent year-on-year, driven by ARPU improvement and growth in smartphone data users.
Homes business sees record subscriber additions
The Homes broadband and fibre segment delivered another strong quarter:
Revenue grew 32.6 percent year-on-year.
Record net additions of 1.159 million customers.
Total Homes customer base reached 13.1 million.
Growth was driven by deeper coverage, fiber expansion and market expansion.
Airtel Business and digital services progress
Airtel Business recorded sequential growth of 1.5 percent, supported by continued expansion in enterprise and adjacency services.
During the quarter, Airtel announced key strategic partnerships:
Collaboration with Google to build India’s first AI hub in Visakhapatnam to accelerate AI adoption
Partnership with IBM to enhance Airtel Cloud for AI and enterprise workloads
Multi-year cybersecurity contract with Indian Railway Security Operations Centre to protect India’s railway digital infrastructure
Digital TV revenue increased marginally by 0.3 percent sequentially, while Passive Infrastructure Services revenue declined slightly by 0.5 percent quarter-on-quarter.
Capex investment strengthens network and fibre footprint
Bharti Airtel continued heavy investments in network and digital infrastructure:
Consolidated Capex: Rs 11,787 crore
India Capex: Rs 9,249 crore
Africa Capex: Rs 2,537 crore
Network expansion highlights:
Deployed 1,147 towers and 16,338 mobile broadband base stations during the quarter
Added 5,457 towers over the last nine months
Rolled out about 30,000 kilometres of fibre
Strategy focused on premiumization, AI and enterprise growth
Bharti Airtel’s strong quarterly performance was driven by portfolio premiumization, network expansion and digital ecosystem partnerships.
With rising ARPU, strong subscriber additions, growing fibre penetration and continued Capex investments, Airtel is positioning itself for long-term growth across mobile, broadband, enterprise and AI-led digital services.
BABURAJAN KIZHAKEDATH
