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Informist, Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2025

 

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--Bharti Airtel: Plan to take up adjusted gross revenue issue with govt
--CONTEXT: Comments by Bharti Airtel's mgmt in post-earnings analyst concall
--Bharti Airtel: India's domestic fibre network growing at a fast pace
--Bharti Airtel: Company's 5G expansion going ahead as planned
--Bharti Airtel: Digital TV business lost 340,000 customers in Q2
--Bharti Airtel: Airtel Cloud getting good response from BFSI, mfg customers
--Bharti Airtel: See Airtel Cloud to be a big growth driver
--Bharti Airtel: Investing across business to capitalise on opportunities
--Bharti Airtel: Partnership with Google to include building of data centres
--Bharti Airtel: See some bump up in capex amid data centre investments
--Bharti Airtel: See Indus Towers as an undervalued asset
--Bharti Airtel: Not happy with market share in home broadband
--Bharti Airtel: Co has grown homes business well, even competitively
--Bharti Hexacom: Q3 has begun well after pronounced seasonality in Q2
--CONTEXT: Comments by Bharti Hexacom mgmt in post-earnings analyst concall
--Bharti Hexacom: Directionally capex to moderate over time

 

By Shakshi Jain and Rajesh Gajra

 

MUMBAI/NEW DELHI – Telecommunications major Bharti Airtel Ltd. will be "absolutely building" a data centre in Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh, for Google, Inc. as part of its recent strategic partnership with the latter to set up an artificial intelligence hub there, Vice-Chairman and Managing Director Gopal Vittal told analysts in a post-earnings conference call Tuesday. The partnership, announced on Oct. 14, will entail an investment of around $15 billion over five years from 2026 and comprise gigawatt-scale data centre operations supported by subsea network.

 

"The data centre buildout will happen through Nxtra, because that is the business that Nxtra does," Vittal said. "The connectivity and cable landing station will be run through Bharti Airtel." Nxtra Data Ltd., a subsidiary of Bharti Airtel, is focused on providing data centre services.

 

The company sees an opportunity to build greater capacities in the data centre space for Nxtra and will allocate more capital to "buy more land in the right places", Vittal said. However, some plans may lead to a slight "bump-up" in the telecommunications player's capital expenditure, which is otherwise expected to be on a moderating trajectory on an annualised basis.

 

"There could be some bump-up because of the investment in Nxtra," Vittal said. "But there again, I would say it's a bit premature to talk about it because we will do what it takes to make sure that we put in the requisite investments to build our position strongly."

 

Bharti Airtel is making investments across several business areas to capitalise on opportunities. "We are seeing large opportunities across connectivity, data centres, digital, and adjacencies," Vittal said.

 

In the cloud segment, the company has 70 conversations going with large customers and has signed a few deals in the manufacturing sector and the banking, financial services, and insurance sector. Vittal said Bharti Airtel believes Airtel Cloud can be a big driver of growth for the company.

 

In the homes broadband category, the company is looking to increase its market share over the next 3-4 years. "I think we have tracked well," Vittal said. "So, consistently over the last six, seven quarters, we have been growing the business on homes, and we've been growing competitively, but there is still a lot more to be done."

 

Bharti Airtel's domestic fibre network now spans over 500,000 kilometres and is growing at a fast pace, according to Vittal. He added that the company's 5G expansion is progressing as planned. Meanwhile, the digital TV business of the company lost 340,000 customers in the September quarter.

 

Subsidiary Bharti Hexacom's management said the third quarter of the financial year has begun well after pronounced seasonality led to a drop in its customer base in the September quarter. "...there is a migratory population and the two places where we have our operations are not extremely urbanised," the management said. "So what happens is, there are people who go there and come back to their place of work, which leads to a little bit of seasonality."

 

On the matter relating to adjusted gross revenue dues, Bharti Airtel said it will engage with the Centre in the days to come. The Supreme Court recently allowed the government to reassess and reconcile all AGR dues of peer Vodafone Idea Ltd. till the financial year 2016-17 (Apr-Mar).

 

In May, the Supreme Court had dismissed petitions filed by Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Idea, and Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) Ltd. seeking a waiver of interest, penalties, and interest on penalties related to their outstanding AGR dues.
 

Answering a question on the company's plan to acquire up to 5?ditional stake in subsidiary Indus Towers Ltd., Vittal said it is seen as a highly undervalued and strong dividend-paying asset by Bharti Airtel.

 

Tuesday, shares of Bharti Airtel ended nearly 2% higher on the National Stock Exchange at INR 2,113.30.  End

 

Edited by Rajeev Pai

 

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