Bharti Airtel’s Q3 2025 results reveal a significant drop in net profit despite revenue growth, highlighting the impact of rising operational costs and strategic investments in the competitive telecom market.
Photograph: Rupak De Chowdhuri/Reuters
Key Points
- Bharti Airtel’s consolidated net profit decreased by approximately 55% in Q3 2025, reaching Rs 6,630.5 crore.
- The decline in profit is attributed to higher network operating costs, statutory fees, and increased employee expenses.
- Airtel’s overall customer base grew by 11.8% to 57.6 crore, with growth in both India and Africa.
- The Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) for Airtel increased to Rs 259, a 5.7% rise compared to the previous year.
- Airtel’s India revenue increased by 13.2% year-on-year, driven by improved realisations and a growing customer base.
Bharti Airtel on Thursday said its consolidated net profit plunged by about 55 per cent to Rs 6,630.5 crore in the third quarter ended December 2025, mainly due to higher network operating costs, statutory fees and employees’ expenses.
The company’s consolidated profit, attributed to the owners of the parent, was Rs 14,781.2 crore in the year-ago period, according to a regulatory filing.
Bharti Airtel’s capital expenditure during the reported quarter grew by about 28 per cent to Rs 11,787 crore from around Rs 9,161 crore in the December 2024 quarter.
The company’s capital expenditure in India grew by 16 per cent to Rs 9,249.5 crore from Rs 7,979.5 crore.
The company’s outgo on license fee and spectrum charges in the December 2025 quarter grew by about 7 per cent to Rs 3,846 crore from about Rs 3,570 crore.
Expense on employees increased by 21 per cent to Rs 1,958 crore from Rs 1,608 crore.
Airtel’s revenue, customer base
India’s second-largest telecom company clocked a quarterly revenue from operations of Rs 53,982 crore, 19.6 per cent higher than Rs 45,129.3 crore it posted in the year-ago period.
Airtel’s India revenue grew to Rs 39,226 crore, up 13.2 per cent on a year-on-year basis.
The company’s India mobile revenue recorded a 9.1 per cent increase, led by improved realisations and a growing customer base.
Bharti Airtel’s customer base increased by 11.8 per cent to 57.6 crore in the quarter, with India tally increasing by 12.6 per cent to 41.38 crore and Africa business recording 10 per cent growth in customer base to 17.93 crore.
Bharti Airtel recorded a 5.7 per cent increase in ARPU (Average Revenue Per User)– a key matrix of growth for a telecom services firm.
The ARPU grew to Rs 259 during the quarter compared to Rs 245 a year ago.
Executive insights on Airtel’s performance
Bharti Airtel executive vice chairman Gopal Vittal said the third quarter marked another strong quarter, with consolidated revenue of Rs 53,982 crore, a growth of 3.5 per cent sequentially, underpinning the company’s strategy of a diversified and resilient portfolio.
“India revenue, including passive infrastructure services, increased by 1.4 per cent sequentially. Africa delivered yet another quarter of exceptional performance with constant currency revenue growth of 5.8 per cent.
“One of the reasons for our stepped-up performance in Africa is the deployment of our homegrown digital stack that has sharpened our go-to-market excellence,” Vittal said.
