Bharti Airtel announced it plans to set up 56 edge data centres over the next 18 to 24 months as part of its infrastructure expansion plans, as per PTI reports. The company shared the details during its FY26 fourth-quarter earnings call on Thursday.
Executive Vice chairman Gopal Vittal said Airtel is increasing investments in fibre infrastructure, data centres and related digital services. He said the company is also working on improving network resilience through the planned facilities.
Vittal said Airtel currently has around 10-12% share in India’s data centre market. He added that the company is looking to increase its presence in the segment over the next few years.
According to the company, nearly 50-60% of demand for data centres in India comes from Mumbai. Vittal said further expansion would require land acquisition and additional infrastructure development.
Airtel has set a target of reaching one gigawatt capacity in the data centre business in the coming years. The company said investments in transport networks and optical fibre infrastructure will continue despite moderation in radio network spending in India.
The telecom operator’s capital expenditure for the March 2026 quarter rose 11.5% year-on-year to ₹16,066 crore. Out of this, spending in India stood at ₹13,488 crore.
For the full FY26 fiscal year, Airtel’s capex declined around 3% to ₹47,522 crore from ₹48,927 crore in the previous year.
The company also said it will continue expanding its home broadband business and scale up its non-banking financial services operations. Airtel has already announced an investment of ₹20,000 crore for the financial services business.
Vittal said the home broadband segment remains important because of lower customer churn and longer customer retention.
During the earnings call, Vittal said India’s telecom tariff structure requires changes. He said higher-income users are paying lower tariffs than they should, while lower-income users are already paying close to their affordability levels.
Bharti Airtel reported a 33.5% fall in consolidated net profit to ₹7,325 crore for the March 2026 quarter due to one-time statutory and tax-related provisions. The company’s annual revenue crossed ₹2 lakh crore for the first time during FY26.
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As of May 15, 2026, 12:11 pm, Bharti Airtel Ltd share price was trading at ₹1,906.60, up 1.22% from the previous closing price.
The company’s infrastructure expansion comes alongside investments in broadband and financial services businesses. Airtel also raised concerns around the current telecom tariff structure in India.
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Published on: May 15, 2026, 12:57 PM IST
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