Bharti Airtel Ltd.Record Revenue, ARPU Strategy Shift

Bharti Airtel delivered a stellar FY2026 performance with consolidated revenue reaching a lifetime high of ₹2,11,000 crore, supported by robust growth across India and Africa operations.

The company reported consolidated EBITDAaL of ₹1,08,000 crore at 51.2% margin, with India EBITDAaL excluding passive growing 18% year-on-year to ₹72,500 crore. Operating free cash flow exceeded ₹41,500 crore, enabling a progressive 50% dividend increase to ₹24 per share. However, management expressed dissatisfaction with mobile ARPU growth of just ₹3 quarter-on-quarter to ₹257, citing fundamentally broken pricing architecture capped at ₹340-350 for unlimited data versus significantly higher global benchmarks.

The company added 4.7 million mobile customers with strong smartphone penetration and secured 1.1 million homes net additions. Strategically, Airtel sharpened focus on three adjacencies—data centers targeting 1 gigawatt capacity, financial services with ₹20,000 crore investment commitment, and cloud computing. Chairman Mittal outlined a decade-long vision to consolidate promoter stake above 51% while increasing Africa holdings toward 90% from current 78%.