Brand Makers
Dil Ka Jod Hai, Tootega Nahin
Bharti Airtel ramps up sales and marketing spend to Rs 3,182 crore in Q2 FY26
Bharti Airtel Q2 FY26: The digital TV revenues dipped 0.7% YoY, while passive infrastructure services revenue rose 1.6% QoQ, aided by new site rollouts and tenancy additions.
Bharti Airtel's Q2 FY26 revenue climbs 26%, broadband base nears 12 million.
Bharti Airtel Ltd on Monday reported strong second-quarter earnings for FY26, driven by India operations and continued expansion across mobility, home broadband, and enterprise services.
The telecom major posted consolidated revenues of Rs 52,145 crore in Q2 FY26, marking a 25.7% year-on-year (YoY) increase and 5.4% growth sequentially. Growth was broad-based across both India and Africa markets.
Revenues from the India business stood at Rs 38,690 crore, up 22.6% YoY and 2.9% quarter-on-quarter (QoQ). The performance was supported by continued premiumisation in the mobile segment, strong momentum in home broadband, and improved enterprise business growth.
The India mobile segment registered a 13.2% YoY rise in revenue, driven by higher ARPU and growth in smartphone data subscribers. During the quarter, Airtel added 5.1 million smartphone data customers, taking the total to 78% of the mobile user base. Postpaid net additions stood at 0.95 million in Q2. Average revenue per user (ARPU) improved to Rs 256, compared to Rs 233 in the same quarter last year.
The Homes business (broadband) continued its robust growth trajectory, reporting a 30.2% YoY revenue increase. Airtel added 951,000 customers during the quarter — the highest ever — bringing its total home broadband base to 11.9 million.
Airtel Business posted 4.3% sequential revenue growth, supported by broad-based improvement across segments.
Meanwhile, digital TV revenues dipped 0.7% YoY, while passive infrastructure services revenue rose 1.6% QoQ, aided by new site rollouts and tenancy additions.
The company continued strengthening its digital infrastructure, adding 2,479 towers and 20,841 mobile broadband base stations during the quarter. Over the past year, it has rolled out 12,796 new towers and 44,104 km of fibre nationwide.
Sales and marketing expenditure rose to Rs 3,182.4 crore in Q2 FY26 from Rs 2,882.4 crore a year earlier.
During the quarter, Airtel also partnered with AI search platform Perplexity to provide a complimentary 12-month Perplexity Pro subscription to all Mobile, Homes and Digital TV customers — a move aimed at boosting digital engagement and differentiation.
SPOTLIGHT
"The raucous, almost deafening, cuss words from the heartland that Piyush Pandey used with gay abandon turned things upside down in the old world order."
Read MoreThe new face of the browser: Who’s building AI-first browsers, what they do and how they could upend advertising
From OpenAI’s ChatGPT-powered Atlas to Microsoft’s Copilot-enabled Edge, a new generation of AI-first browsers is transforming how people search, surf and interact online — and reshaping the future of digital advertising.