Bharti Airtel Q1 Net Profit Rises 43% to ₹5,948 Crore; ARPU Hits ₹250

Sunil Mittal-led Bharti Airtel reported a 43% year-on-year increase in consolidated net profit (attributable to the parent company), reaching ₹5,948 crore for the quarter ended 30 June 2025, compared with ₹4,159 crore in the same period last year.

Revenue from operations rose 28% year-on-year to ₹49,463 crore in Q1 FY26 from ₹38,506 crore a year earlier, supported by growth in mobile services and continued expansion in its home broadband business. Average revenue per user (ARPU) increased to ₹250 from ₹211 in the year-ago quarter, while the company’s total mobile customer base grew 6.6% to 436 million.

Ahead of the earnings release, Airtel’s shares closed 0.8% higher at ₹1,930 on the NSE.

Operationally, consolidated EBITDA rose 41.2% year-on-year to ₹28,167 crore, with a margin of 56.9%, while India EBITDA margin improved to 59.5%. EBIT jumped 67% to ₹15,621 crore, reflecting operational leverage and robust revenue growth.

Vice-Chairman and MD Gopal Vittal said the company delivered “another quarter of consistent growth,” with consolidated revenue rising 3.3% sequentially. India revenue rose 2.3% quarter-on-quarter, while its Africa operations posted 6.7% growth in constant currency terms. He highlighted that the mobile segment grew 2.9% sequentially, driven by premiumisation and the benefit of an additional day in the quarter, and noted that the balance sheet remains strong with healthy cash flows and disciplined capital allocation.

Bharti Airtel's smartphone customer base rose by 21.3 million year-on-year and 3.9 million sequentially, now comprising 77% of mobile subscribers. Mobile data usage per customer climbed 21.6% year-on-year to 26.9 GB per month.

Airtel added around 1,800 new towers and 7,500 broadband sites in the quarter, while the Homes business delivered 25.7% year-on-year revenue growth, adding a record 939,000 new Wi-Fi subscribers and expanding the home-pass network by 1.6 million fibre connections.

“Our Homes business reported solid performance with lifetime-high quarterly net additions of 939K, resulting in sequential revenue growth of 7.6%. Our digital network across India and Africa now serves over 600 million customers,” Vittal said.

Airtel’s enterprise arm saw a 7.7% year-on-year drop in revenue as the company prioritised higher-quality earnings and phased out low-margin contracts. Despite the decline, demand for core connectivity and digital solutions remained steady, according to the company.

In the Digital TV segment, revenue stood at ₹763 crore with a subscriber base of 15.7 million. The newly launched IPTV service, introduced last quarter, continued to gain traction, adding 0.65 million subscribers during the June quarter.