Bharti Airtel reported a 31% year-on-year rise in consolidated net profit to Rs 8,887.5 crore for the September quarter, while continued investment in mobile networks, fibre, homes broadband and data centres strengthened its position as a major digital infrastructure provider.
Consolidated revenue rose 16.7% year-on-year to Rs 60,878 crore in Q2FY27, compared with Rs 52,145 crore in the corresponding quarter last fiscal, according to the company’s results reported by Economic Times. Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation increased 17.8% to Rs 35,240 crore from Rs 29,919 crore.
India revenue grew 9.4% to Rs 42,308 crore. India mobile revenue increased 10.1%, while average revenue per user rose to Rs 271 from Rs 256 a year earlier. The company attributed the performance to a premiumisation of its customer base and growth in smartphone data users.
Airtel added 2.9 million smartphone data customers sequentially during the quarter, taking such users to 81% of its overall mobile customer base. Mobile data consumption rose 36.5% year-on-year to 36.5 GB per customer per month. The company added 497 towers and 11,684 mobile broadband base stations during the quarter.
Over the preceding year, Airtel said it had added 5,649 towers and laid 44,718 kilometres of fibre. The figures indicate the scale at which telecom operators are expanding the physical networks that support mobile data, home broadband and enterprise connectivity across urban and regional markets.
The company’s Homes business recorded 25.3% year-on-year revenue growth and added 676,000 customers in the quarter. Its total customer base reached 15.4 million. The postpaid business added 1.2 million customers, its strongest quarterly addition, taking the overall postpaid base to 31.2 million.
Airtel’s consolidated capital expenditure stood at Rs 12,467 crore during the quarter, including Rs 9,908 crore in India. It also invested Rs 2,826 crore in a strategic land parcel for data-centre expansion. Executive Vice Chairman Gopal Vittal said the investment formed part of the company’s ambition to build 1 GW of data-centre capacity in the country.
The company’s balance sheet also improved. Its consolidated net debt-to-EBITDA ratio on an annualised basis declined to 1.18 from 1.63 as of September 30, 2025. The net debt-to-EBITDAaL ratio, excluding lease obligations, stood at 0.70.
Airtel Business revenue rose 11.4%, supported by connectivity and digital services. Digital TV revenue increased 2.4% to Rs 771 crore, with the company reporting growing adoption of IPTV services. Across its operations in 15 countries, Airtel’s total customer base reached 693 million after quarterly net additions of 12 million across India and Africa.
Vittal said the India mobile business recorded 3.4% sequential revenue growth, while the Homes and Airtel Business divisions continued to expand. He also cited financial services and data centres as newer growth initiatives. Airtel’s Africa revenue grew 25.7% in reported currency and 20.6% in constant currency during the quarter.
Shares of Bharti Airtel closed 0.52% lower at Rs 2,056.90 on the NSE on Thursday, compared with the previous close of Rs 2,067.60. The stock traded between Rs 2,048 and Rs 2,084 during the session, while the company’s market capitalisation stood at approximately Rs 12.84 lakh crore. Airtel said it would remain focused on network expansion, data-centre development and disciplined capital allocation.
