Airtel subscribers hit 650m to become world’s second largest telecom operator
Bharti Airtel yesterday said it now has 650 million customers across, a milestone that places the telecom operator as the second largest globally by customer base, with operations spread across
- By Lucas Ajanaku with agency report
Bharti Airtel yesterday said it now has 650 million customers across, a milestone that places the telecom operator as the second largest globally by customer base, with operations spread across India and Africa, citing data from GSMA Intelligence.
In Africa, the company’s Airtel Africa subsidiary has a base of 179 million customers across 14 countries in the continent offering high-speed data, integrated voice, and mobile money services, which has over 52 million customers.
According to February 2026 figures from Nigeria’s telecom sector regulator, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Airtel Nigeria had over 63 million subscribers, maintaining its position as the second-largest mobile operator in the country behind MTN. It also had 54 million Internet users.
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The carrier owned by Sunil Mittal has over 368 million mobile customers in India, which includes 13 million homes powered by fixed broadband and 15 million users on its Digital TV offering.
In India, Airtel remains second to Reliance Jio, which said it crossed 500 million customers last year. Jio has subscribers only in India. Globally, telecom subscriber rankings are primarily dominated by Chinese telecom operators. China Mobile currently dominates with over 1 billion mobile subscribers on its network. Airtel has now become the second-largest.
“Achieving the milestone of 650 million customers to be the second largest operator globally is a great responsibility for us to serve our customers better every day,” Executive Vice Chairman, Bharti Airtel, Gopal VIttal, said.
Vittal said the telecom operator will strive to raise the bar on innovation, reliability to elevate customer experience further. The company was first to launch 5G services in India.
According to a report by Kotak Equities, Bharti’s subscriber base is growing at a compounded growth rate of 2.9per cent over FY21-26, with a 9.7per cent compounded growth in data subscribers, indicating a faster growth in high-value customers.
“We see significant growth headroom with an underpenetrated rural/mobile broadband market and around 20per cent of its subscribers still on 2G/3G,” the brokerage said in a report yesterday.
According to data from TRAI, Airtel’s subscriber market share rose to 37.59per cent in February 2026, up from 37.4per cent in the previous month. This growth was driven by its industry-leading addition of 4.86 million mobile subscribers in February alone, significantly outpacing Reliance Jio’s 1.62.
