ET Awards for Corporate Excellence 2025: Bharti Airtel named 'Company of the Year'

Few Indian companies have demonstrated the consistency, tenacity and execution excellence that Bharti Airtel has shown over nearly four decades. What began in 1986 as a manufacturer of push-button telephones has become a global telecom company, a digital services leader, and India's third-largest listed company by market value. Airtel has not only weathered the challenges of India's tightly regulated telecom sector but has also emerged stronger through successive waves of industry consolidation.

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It launched mobile services in 1995 and expanded across India through a series of acquisitions, including Skycell in Chennai, Spice Cell in Kolkata and JT Mobiles in the south, establishing one of the earliest pan-India networks. By the early 2000s, Airtel had become the country's first private fixed-line provider and the first to launch national long-distance services under IndiaOne.


But the end of the decade ushered in a phase of hyper-competitive intensity in India's telecom sector. During the 2G era, the market saw a wave of new entrants, including global players such as NTT Docomo and Etisalat, as well as several domestic licensees, which pushed the industry from four to more than 10 active players. But Airtel stood its ground. During the 2G spectrum case, the court cancelled 122 licences issued in 2008, marking the start of large-scale consolidation in the sector.

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Over the following decade, Airtel launched 3G in India and Sri Lanka, introduced the country's first 4G LTE service in Kolkata in 2012, and rolled out international roaming, WiFi services, BlackBerry integration, and large-scale enterprise connectivity. By 2014, the telco had crossed over 300 million customers, emerging as the world's third-largest mobile operator. Airtel ventured into Africa in 2010 through a $10.7 billion deal, a massive bet that has paid off in the years since.

The next major shakeout came in 2016, following Reliance Jio's disruptive entry with unlimited free voice and data services. The resulting tariff war triggered another wave of consolidation, forcing rivals such as Vodafone and Idea to merge for survival. Airtel successfully navigated its way through this unprecedented below-cost pricing environment as well as the Supreme Court's 2019 ruling on AGR, which burdened it with dues of ₹44,000 crore.

Against these headwinds, the company has not only survived but thrived, expanding its services from pure-play telco to a full-stack digital provider offering entertainment, broadband, cybersecurity, cloud services, internet of things (IoT) and fintech through Airtel Payments Bank, India's first such entity, which was launched in 2016.

Airtel has about 40% market share with industry-leading average revenue per user (ARPU) at ₹256 in Q2. It now operates in 16 countries. Revenue grew at a three-year CAGR of 14% to ₹1.7 lakh crore in FY25. Net profit rose by 99% annually to ₹33,556 crore between FY22 and FY25. It has led India's digital infrastructure expansion through Nxtra, the country's leading data centre venture. Airtel has strengthened India's connectivity via subsea cables including SEA-ME-WE-6 and the 2Africa Pearls landing in 2025.

This year, Airtel cemented its global industry standing when Gopal Vittal was elected chairman of the GSMA Board, a first for an Indian CEO. The company now partners global leaders such as Google, Microsoft, Nvidia, Qualcomm, Ericsson, Nokia, Apple, SpaceX to shape India's digital future.