Airtel crosses 650 million customers globally, becomes world’s second largest telecom operator

Airtel has become the world’s second-largest telecom operator after crossing 650 million customers globally across its various operations.

With presence in Africa (Airtel Africa) and India (Bharti Airtel), the milestone reflects the continued trust to deliver both mobile and internet connectivity. It also reflects how the operator is spreading its coverage across digital services and infrastructure expansions.

While reacting to the development, Gopal Vital, Executive Vice Chairman at Bharti Airtel, noted that the milestone presents a new responsibility for the telco to serve customers better every day.

He pointed out that Airtel is ready to raise the bar on innovation, reliability, and experience “so that every customer interaction is an opportunity to earn trust and deliver value connection.”

As part of its recent innovations to improve customer experience, Airtel launched an automatic AI-powered Spam Alert Service that detects and flags fraudulent SMS messages in real-time. Gopal described the innovation as a “state-of-the-art technology” to deliver a safe network. 

Within six months of deployment (as of September 2025), over 205 million spam messages were detected, reducing spam volume significantly in Nigeria. It also operates across 13 of Airtel’s African markets.

Also Read: Airtel Africa names Gopal Vittal new chairman as Sunil Mittal exits after 7 years in the role.

Airtel’s numbers breakdown 

The 650 million customer base cut across Airtel’s services in India and Africa, such as mobile, data, Airtel Money and others. 

In Africa, the operator has 179 million telecom subscribers across its 14 markets. Customers under this umbrella enjoy services such as mobile voice, data, and international roaming services. 

At the core of its service in Africa is Airtel Money, offered via Smartcash PSB. With over 52 million customers, the company drives financial inclusion by providing banking and instant payments to customers and previously unbanked individuals. 

The mobile money operation is doing more than just numbers. During the 9 months ended December 2025, mobile money revenue contributed 21.1% to Airtel Africa’s total revenue as total processed value (TPV) for Q3 ’26 (Oct ’25 to Dec ’25) surpassed the $200 billion threshold, with an increase of 36% to over $210 billion.

Outside Africa, Airtel has 368 million mobile customers in India. Also, it currently serves more than 13 million homes with high-speed internet services and over 15 million through its Digital TV offering. 

Through Airtel Business, it offers enterprise-oriented solutions across Airtel IQ, cybersecurity, SD-WAN, cloud, managed services, and IoT. These are powered by an expansive network of over 400,000 route kilometres of subsea fibre and Nxtra’s green data centres. 

Aside from its mobile internet services, Airtel is closing the digital divide gap through satellite-to-cell services. It has formed strategic partnerships with Eutelsat, OneWeb and SpaceX to utilise their low-earth orbit (LEO) satellite for high-speed internet. 

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