Multinatiinal telecom company, Airtel has emerged world’s second-largest telecom brand, as it surpasses 650 million customer subscription based on GSMA Intelligen.
The the mobile subscription mark covers operations in 14 African countries, via Airtel Africa and India.
India’s base includes 368 million mobile users, 13 million broadband homes, and 15 million Digital TV subscribers.
Airtel Africa added 179 million telecom customers, with 81.8 million on data plans.
Airtel Money, the mobile money service, hit 52 million users. It processed over $210 billion in total processed value during Q3 2026, reflecting 36 percent year-on-year growth.
Bharti Airtel’s executive vice chairman, Gopal Vittal, noted that this milestone heightens the responsibility to innovate and deliver reliable services daily.
Airtel launched an AI-powered Spam Alert Service in September 2025, blocking 205 million spam messages in Nigeria alone within six months. The tool now runs in 13 African markets.
Enterprise arm, Airtel Business, offers solutions including Airtel IQ, cybersecurity, SD-WAN, cloud services, and IoT. These leverage 400,000 km of subsea fiber and Nxtra green data centers.
Partnerships with Eutelsat, OneWeb, and SpaceX enable low-earth orbit satellite connectivity to close digital gaps.
Mobile money generated 21.1 percent of Airtel Africa’s total revenue over nine months to December 2025. Smartphone use reached 48.1 percent in core markets, with average data consumption at 8.6 GB per customer monthly.
The company operates across South Asia and Africa.
Airtel Africa plans to list Airtel Money on the stock exchange in the first half of 2026.
