Bharti Airtel posts strong Q2, drives strategic growth

Bharti Airtel reported consolidated revenue of ₹52,145 million, up 25.7% year-over-year, and consolidated EBITDA of ₹29,919 million, a 35.9% increase, with a margin of 57.4% for Q2 FY26. Net income before exceptional items reached ₹6,792 million. The company announced a strategic partnership with Perplexity, offering free 12-month subscriptions to its 360 million customers, and launched "Airtel Cloud," a sovereign telco-grade cloud platform.

Operational highlights included India business revenues of ₹38,690 million (up 22.6% YoY), driven by mobile ARPU increasing to ₹256 and 5.1 million new smartphone data customers. Airtel's anti-fraud initiatives reduced customer financial losses by nearly 70%.

The board approved the acquisition of up to 5% additional stake in Indus Towers Limited, a subsidiary, and an amendment to its Memorandum of Association to cover emerging technologies. Dinesh Kumar Khara was appointed as an independent director for a five-year term.