Bharti Airtel Limited — Q1 FY26
Bharti Airtel delivered a steady Q1 FY26 with consolidated revenue of INR 49,463 crore and India EBITDA margin of 51.4%, up 65 bps sequentially.
bullish
high
✓ Verified against BSE filing
Claim Ledger
Did management answer the analysts?
Every material analyst question, graded on whether management actually answered it — with the verbatim exchange and quantitative claims checked against filed numbers.
55%Questions answered3Evaded / deflected10Questions audited
Answered
Medium priority
Why did roaming charges drop? Is it seasonality or something else?
Asked by Sanjesh Jain, ICICI Securities
Management confirmed seasonality and external factors, explained no EBITDA impact.
Read the exchange
Question
My first question on this drop in the roaming charges, is it more seasonality because second half sees more tourists in Pakistan and then has a lower tourist or is there beyond anything to look into this roaming charges drop?
Soumen Ray, CFO, Bharti Hexacom
Roaming charges, as I mentioned, as you mentioned, is seasonal. Unfortunately, there were a couple of unfortunate incidents which happened in Q1... travel had indeed come down and picked up later... This is like a pass through. Our EBITDA has not got impacted.
Partial answer
Medium priority
Why did employee cost drop and SG&A jump sharply?
Asked by Sanjesh Jain, ICICI Securities
Explained reversal but did not quantify SG&A jump separately.
no specific breakdownwithheld details
Read the exchange
Question
employee cost drop has been quite steep, and there is a significant sharp jump equally in SG&A cost. What explains this true line item?
Soumen Ray, CFO, Bharti Hexacom
the employee cost was some year-end provisions which was made in the last quarter and has got reversed... a lot of reversal crept into that number. Without getting into gory details... the underlying group growth is much lower. I would say in the range of about 2.5-3%.
Evasive
High priority
Should we expect full payout given low debt and high cash flow?
Asked by Sanjesh Jain, ICICI Securities
Acknowledged surplus but gave no specific payout ratio or timeline.
deferred to boardno commitmentmentioned future investments
Read the exchange
Question
We have INR 2.8 billion of debt, INR 800 million of quarterly cash flow... How should we look at the payout ratio... Should we go to a full payout anytime soon?
Soumen Ray, CFO, Bharti Hexacom
it would be improper for me to overtake the authority of the board... this year the dividend has been increased and there would be a directional increase in dividend... there could be investments which would go in.
Evasive
High priority
How much can ARPU expand without industry-wide tariff hikes?
Asked by Aditya Suresh, Macquarie
Did not provide any numeric ARPU growth potential; spoke about contextual monetization.
no quantitative estimatereframed to qualitative levers
Read the exchange
Question
How much more do you think we can kind of expand ARPU in the absence of any headline industry-wide tariff increase?
Soumen Ray, CFO, Bharti Hexacom
the way we look at ARPU is a derived number... If we can keep making... more and more people, the more contextual I can make it... The ARPU will keep growing up because headline tariff, if it is not changing, what is changing is ancillary revenue...
Answered
Medium priority
Will FWA dominate over FTTH in your rural markets?
Asked by Vivekanand Subbaraman, Ambit Capital
Gave directional view on FWA vs FTTH mix over time.
Read the exchange
Question
In the markets you operate in, which are more rural than Bharti Airtel, does it make more sense for you to remain for a long time on FWA versus... FTTH? How much can this FWA market scale up?
Soumen Ray, CFO, Bharti Hexacom
FWA will have a possibly bigger share when the complete rollout happens... five years from now, FWA will have a bigger share of total connected homes in these two markets as compared to the rest of the country...
Answered
Medium priority
Why is your mobile data usage per customer higher than industry?
Asked by Vivekanand Subbaraman, Ambit Capital
Provided clear reason: lower Wi-Fi penetration in their circles.
Read the exchange
Question
what is so different about your customer profile that the data traffic or the mobile data usage is so much higher than the other industry players?
Soumen Ray, CFO, Bharti Hexacom
The penetration of Wi-Fi eats into mobile data consumption. The rest of the country has more Wi-Fi penetration... That is the single biggest reason why the data consumption per customer per month, which is about 29 GB, is higher...
Partial answer
Medium priority
How should we think about lease cost growth and EBITDAL margin?
Asked by Vivekanand Subbaraman, Ambit Capital
Acknowledged past growth but gave only qualitative future outlook.
no numeric margin guidancequalitative only
Read the exchange
Question
The last three years, the lease costs... that number has grown at 15% CAGR... How should one think about these costs and overall your incremental cash EBITDAL margin?
Soumen Ray, CFO, Bharti Hexacom
I think we were in a rollout phase. The only now additional cost which will come... will be more gradual, and there will not be any major gap which will come going forward.
Partial answer
High priority
What is the CapEx intensity outlook for FY26 and beyond?
Asked by Piyush Choudhary, HSBC
Gave directional trend but no numeric CapEx intensity figure.
no specific numberqualitative only
Read the exchange
Question
you talked about possible site expansion and 5G expansion. Can you share the outlook for CapEx intensity for Bharti Hexacom for fiscal 2026 and beyond?
Soumen Ray, CFO, Bharti Hexacom
CapEx will marginally unwind because our main rural acceleration program site rollout had happened earlier. CapEx will directionally unwind... At a yearly level, it will marginally unwind.
Evasive
Medium priority
How is Airtel Black adoption in your circles?
Asked by Piyush Choudhary, HSBC
Declined to provide any numeric adoption metrics.
no subscriber numbersdeclined to share penetration
Read the exchange
Question
Airtel Black, like how is the adoption of Airtel Black in these circles? How has Labs grown and what are the tangible benefits you are seeing of the same?
Soumen Ray, CFO, Bharti Hexacom
this current proposition with IPTV is seeing a lot of traction in these circles as well... We have had very, very promising result... I think catching up with the national level.
Answered
Low priority
What is the value of digital partnerships like Perplexity?
Asked by Kunal Vora, BNP Paribas
Explained purpose as customer experience enhancement, not direct monetization.
Read the exchange
Question
You're offering Perplexity, Google 100GB storage... What is the value which you look to drive? Is it a customer retention tool? Is it to gain customer insights?
Soumen Ray, CFO, Bharti Hexacom
we want to deal with quality customers and give them the best possible experience... we felt if we bring it to our customers, our customers will feel that we are not just providing them a mobility service... The whole idea is that other than pure mobility or home services, can we bring something extra...
Answered
Medium priority
Why is there a disconnect between Airtel and Indus on tower additions?
Asked by Kunal Vora, BNP Paribas
Explained Indus has multiple clients; Hexacom's own additions are modest.
Read the exchange
Question
There seems to be a disconnect between Airtel's commentary and that of Indus Towers. You seem to be largely done with expansion, while Indus is still expecting strong tower additions, how do I reconcile this?
Soumen Ray, CFO, Bharti Hexacom
Indus Towers works with four or five organizations. We are one of them... We, as a small, will also do some. It won't be zero... We are not reducing our number of tasks.