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Airtel is the world’s secondlargest telecom operator by customer base, serving nearly 666 million customers globally through an integrated digital network and a diversified portfolio of services.
Airtel integrated portfolio brings together mobility, broadband, digital TV, enterprise solutions including data centres, cloud, cyber-security and digital platforms, creating seamless experiences that power the evolving needs of consumers, businesses and communities.
The Print Times
In FY2025-26, Airtel continued to chart a bold and disciplined course, further strengthening its position as the second-largest global telecom operator by customer base. Today, Brand Airtel is a flag bearer of India across 15 countries, built on the trust of our customers and our commitment to serve them better every day with secure and reliable connectivity solutions.
Over the last three decades, your Company has built worldclass digital infrastructure, fostered a culture of ownership and entrepreneurship and consistently placed the customer at the heart of everything we do. These qualities at once define Airtel and position your Company at the forefront of digital transformation across markets.
Airtel’s investments are directed towards harnessing new growth engines for India that rest on the foundation of a resilient and secure digital infrastructure. These will be shaped by the same principles that have guided Airtel’s journey so far - a customer first approach, disciplined execution and a long-term vision.
The past year unfolded against a backdrop of relentless global flux intensifying geopolitical rivalries, the reconfiguration of supply chains and a shifting trade architecture that left few economies untouched. India, however, is navigating these challenges, anchoring its policy in economic pragmatism and a heightened technology – forward posture in its global engagements. Digitalisation and digital infrastructure will continue to be prominent supplements to India’s geo-economic strategy, in addition to the traditional markers of its growth.
India remains among the fastest-growing large economies, underpinned by domestic demand, policy continuity and expanding national capabilities. The digital economy is a bedrock of this growth, reflected in the scale of adoption across payments, public digital infrastructure, enterprise transformation and Artificial Intelligence (AI)-led innovation.
AI has transformed systems of governance, commercial offerings, workflows and communication in ways previously unimaginable. The story of the impact of this tectonic shift to the global landscape cannot be told without India. India’s opportunity is unique in scale and pace. New Delhi hosted the AI Impact Summit, outlining the significance of responsible, ethical and accessible AI. It is my firm belief that this is India’s distinctive advantage. In just a decade, the country has showcased its digital prowess, lending the power of connectivity to the last mile, the replete benefits of digitisation to its most vulnerable citizens, the emergence of a tech-native population at scale and perhaps most laudable, the foundation of truly frugal, accessible digital goods.
Policies supporting cloud, AI and digital infrastructure are expected to further accelerate investments and strengthen the ecosystem. Building on this momentum, the long-term tax holiday laid out by the Government of India for cloud and AI-led data centre investments is a timely initiative, expected to catalyse sustained capital inflows into digital infrastructure, while assuring the people of India of sovereign, secure data flows.
In this journey and indeed, at the heart of such digital transformation, Airtel remains a reliable and privileged partner to the nation. Your Company’s role extends well beyond connectivity. We are building the digital highways that enable economic activity, innovation and inclusion at scale.
Over the last 10 years, your Company has invested significantly with over H3.3 trillion in creating one of India’s strongest digital infrastructure platforms. The emergence of the 5G economy is defining the next phase of growth, enabling new use cases across industries. With widespread network availability, 5G is accelerating the shift towards high-speed, low-latency connectivity and unlocking new avenues for innovation.
Further, we are leveraging advanced digital platforms to simplify complexity, improve efficiency and enhance agility across networks and operations. These capabilities are also helping embed sustainability more deeply into the way we build and manage our infrastructure.
Airtel remained focused on its strategy: portfolio premiumisation, winning with quality customers and delivering them exceptional experience. This strategy has yielded strong results, that are reflected in sustained revenue market share gains, industry-leading ARPU and robust customer additions. During the year, we further expanded our footprint into underserved geographies, reinforcing our commitment to inclusive connectivity. Our rural acceleration programme continues to be a critical enabler of digital proliferation and inclusion, with about 40,000 network sites rolled out over the last three years.
The Home Broadband business saw another year of strong progress. This segment is poised for accelerated growth, underscored by continued benefits from structural trends. Your Company is capitalising on the opportunity with accelerated investments in fiber rollouts, fixed wireless access (FWA) expansion along with sweating our expansive distribution network. During the year, your Company added its highest ever fiber home passes, at ~8 million and expanded FWA services to over 3,300 cities. As a result, net adds for the year were at a record high of 4.2 million.
On the Enterprise front, Airtel Business further strengthened its position in core connectivity alongside registering strong growth in digital services across Cloud, Cyber Security, CPaaS, IoT and other Enterprise Solutions. FY2025-26 saw further innovation through the launch of telco grade, India’s sovereign cloud offering under Airtel Cloud. In a short span of time, your Company has secured over 24 deals, extending its differentiated cloud offering to customers. Our data centre business delivered another year of consistent performance and remains on track to expand its capacity multi-fold in the years to come. Your Company is well positioned to serve its customers with innovative and tailored digital solutions across Enterprises, Government and Small and Medium Businesses.
Over the years, Airtel has transformed its digital capabilities and embedded them across the organisation. Our digital team comprising data scientists, data engineers and data product specialists have built solid capabilities with in-house platforms and bespoke digital tools.
Over the last few years, we took a calibrated approach to build new growth engines for Airtel. I am delighted that your Company, through its subsidiary, Airtel Money Limited, was granted the approval from the Reserve Bank of India to operate as a non-deposit taking Non-Banking Financial Company (NBFC). This is a significant milestone for your Company, as also, for the broader goal of expanding the reach of financial inclusion in India. Airtel Money will be suitably capitalised over the years.
In the data centre space, Nxtra is on track to build 1 GW of capacity over the next few years. India’s rapid digitisation, rising cloud adoption and increasing data localisation requirements make this a compelling long-term opportunity. Nxtra’s US$1 billion fund raise from marquee investors, alongside Airtel’s participation, is a strong validation of both the opportunity and our execution capabilities
Our third growth engine, Airtel Cloud, is seeing encouraging early traction. Our sovereign, telco-grade cloud offering addresses an emerging need in the Indian market. Airtel Cloud allows our customers to get access to world-class cloud offerings hosted and held in India and delivered in a cost-effective manner.
Africa
Our Africa operations delivered another year of solid performance with constant currency revenue growth of 24% while EBITDA growth of about 31%, driven by sharp execution, tariff repair in Nigeria and operational efficiencies. Africa’s Airtel Money offering - which continues to scale rapidly, registered a 28% revenue growth. Operating free cashflow (EBITDA – Capex) for the year stood over US$2.1 billion, growing 30% over the last year.
Driving growth through focus on quality customers and convergence
Airtel’s performance continues to be underpinned by a clear strategy and disciplined execution across its core strategic pillars. Portfolio premiumisation remains central to drive revenue growth supported by razor-sharp execution. During the year, the company added 11 million mobile customers and 18.7 million smartphone data customers, further strengthening the scale and quality of its base. The Company also saw strong momentum in its postpaid segment with net customer additions of 3 million. This was driven by a focused approach on differentiated propositions, simplified customers journeys and delivering superior experience. The company’s strategic decisions continue to deliver strong outcomes - ending the year with an industry-leading ARPU of INR 257, up INR 12 year-on-year.
The above speech of Sunil Bharti Mittal, Chairman, has been extracted from Bharti Airtel Limited’s annual report for Fy 25-26
