Bharti Airtel posted strong Q3 FY26 results, with consolidated revenue rising 19.6% YoY to Rs 53,982 crore and EBITDA up 25.2%. ARPU increased to Rs 259, driven by growth in India's mobile, homes, and Africa businesses.
Bharti Airtel on Thursday reported a strong financial performance for the quarter ended December 31, 2025, with consolidated revenues increasing 19.6 per cent year-on-year to Rs 53,982 crore, driven by sustained growth.
The telecom operator posted consolidated EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortisation) of Rs 31,144 crore, up 25.2 per cent year on year, while EBITDA margins expanded to 57.7 per cent. Net income before exceptional items stood at Rs 6,920 crore for the quarter, compared with Rs 5,514 crore in the same period last year.
India Business Performance
Airtel's India business reported quarterly revenues of Rs 39,226 crore, up 13.2 per cent year-on-year.
Mobile Segment Growth
India's mobile revenues grew 9.1 per cent year-on-year, supported by higher customer realisations and continued growth in the smartphone user base. Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) rose to Rs 259 during the quarter, compared with Rs 245 in Q3 2024-25. Smartphone data customers increased by 20.8 million over the past year and now account for approximately 79 per cent of Airtel's total mobile customer base. Postpaid services continued to gain traction, with net customer additions of 0.62 million during the quarter.
Homes Business Expansion
The homes business delivered another strong quarter, with revenues growing 32.6 per cent year-on-year. Net customer additions reached a record high of 1.159 million, driven by network expansion and deeper market penetration, taking the total home customer base to 13.1 million.
Airtel Africa Performance
In Africa, Airtel reported constant-currency revenue growth of 24.7 per cent year-on-year. EBITDA margins in the region improved to 49.3 per cent, reflecting better operating leverage and continued execution strength across markets.
Strategic AI and Cloud Partnerships
During the quarter, Bharti Airtel entered into a strategic partnership with Google to set up India's first Artificial Intelligence (AI) hub in Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh. This landmark initiative will accelerate the adoption of AI across India, strengthen the country's digital backbone and bring Google's full AI-stack and consumer services closer to Indian businesses.
Bharti Airtel also entered into a strategic partnership with IBM to augment its recently launched Airtel Cloud. The partnership is expected to bring together the telco-grade reliability, high security, and data residency of Airtel Cloud with IBM's leadership in cloud solutions, and advanced infrastructure and software technologies designed for AI inferencing. Together, Airtel and IBM will aim to enable enterprises in regulated industries to scale AI workloads more efficiently, delivering interoperability across infrastructure, including on-premise, in the cloud, across multiple clouds and at the edge.
Management Commentary
Commenting on the results, Gopal Vittal, Executive Vice Chairman of Bharti Airtel, said, "Our balance sheet strength, reinforced by strong cash generation and sustained deleveraging, positions us well to invest in new growth opportunities."
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