Bharti Airtel accelerated network investments, tower expansion and mobile data growth during the quarter ended December 31, 2025, highlighting continued demand for broadband connectivity across India and Africa.
Airtel Capex crosses Rs 117,869 Mn in Q3 FY26
Bharti Airtel reported total capital expenditure of Rs 117,869 Mn for the quarter as it continued to strengthen mobile, enterprise and digital infrastructure.
Segment-wise Capex included:
Mobile Services: Rs 16,055 Mn
Digital TV: Rs 3,287 Mn
Airtel Business: Rs 7,596 Mn
Passive Infrastructure (Indus Towers): Rs 19,938 Mn
Airtel Africa: $285 Mn
The spending reflects Airtel’s ongoing network densification, capacity expansion and data-driven infrastructure strategy.
Tower footprint expands across India
Airtel continued to expand its network infrastructure to support rising traffic demand.
Key network expansion highlights:
Total network towers reached 343,486, up from 334,757 YoY
Mobile broadband base stations increased to 1,171,148 from 1,099,973 YoY
Sequential growth from previous quarter: 1,154,810 to 1,171,148 base stations
The company’s aggressive rollout supports rising smartphone penetration and data usage across its customer base.
Smartphone base and data traffic surge
Airtel’s smartphone ecosystem and data consumption continued to grow strongly.
Key customer and usage metrics:
Smartphone users reached 291.0 million
Up 5.2 million QoQ
Up 20.8 million YoY
Total data traffic grew 29.2 percent YoY
26,056 million GB vs 20,174 million GB last year
Average data usage per customer rose 21.5 percent YoY
29.8 GB per month vs 24.5 GB
The growth highlights sustained demand for video, social media and digital services.
Indus Towers expands co-location capacity
Airtel’s passive infrastructure arm Indus Towers continued to scale its tower portfolio and co-location capacity.
Indus Towers highlights:
259,622 macro towers across 22 telecom circles
421,822 macro co-locations
Net macro co-location additions: 6,105
Lean co-locations reached 13,989 with 26 net additions
Average sharing factor: 1.62 per tower
Financial performance of passive infrastructure:
Revenue: Rs 81,463 Mn vs Rs 75,475 Mn YoY
EBITDA: Rs 46,097 Mn
EBITDA margin: 56.6 percent
The segment continues to benefit from tenancy additions and network densification.
Airtel Africa ramps up towers and data usage
Airtel Africa also increased infrastructure investment and data adoption.
Key Africa metrics:
Capex: $285 million
Towers increased to 39,127 vs 36,630 YoY
Mobile broadband base stations rose to 148,967 vs 133,641 YoY
Strong growth in data adoption:
Data customers: 81.8 million vs 71.4 million YoY
Data users now 45.6 percent of customer base
Data traffic grew 46.5 percent YoY to 2,226 million GB
Data usage per customer increased 25.6 percent to 9.3 GB
Airtel doubles down on data-led growth Bharti Airtel’s quarterly performance shows a clear strategy centered on Capex-led network expansion, tower rollout and accelerating mobile data usage. The company continues to invest aggressively to support growing smartphone adoption and surging data consumption across its key markets.
BABURAJAN KIZHAKEDATH
