has sought conversion of its AGR dues of around Rs 41,000 crore, including interest liability, into equity ownership for the government, in line with a similar relief given to debt-ridden
Vodafone Idea. "On the AGR conversion, I think for us it was quite simple. We think that we just wanted a non-discriminatory level-playing field in terms of an option to convert. Whether we will convert or not is a decision for the board to take but the option is something that we wanted to make sure. We wanted a clarification from the government whether we had the option or not," Vittal said.
He was speaking during the company's post-earnings call after announcement of the financial results for the fourth quarter as well as the financial year 2024-25.
Sharing the company's future plans, Vittal said that Airtel's investment on mobile networks will lower as it has covered a significant area, but it is looking to ramp up the home broadband segment.
For the full year ended March 2025, the company's capex for India stood at Rs 33,242 crore.
In response to a question on capex guidance for next year, Vittal said, "I can tell you that it will certainly trend downwards." He said that the rural roll-out will substantially slow down but there will be roll out of networks where the coverage is still low, like in Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Gujarat. "The transport side is a consistent kind of capex that we put in and that will continue. So you will certainly see a moderation in Capex," Vittal said.
He said that the company will look at rolling out more fibre to connect more homes with broadband.
"We would like to see more fiber being rolled out as we speak. I am not happy with the 1.7 million home passes that we did in the quarter. I would like to see it going up to well over 2.5 million," Vittal said.
When asked about plans for a data centre, he said the company is building up additional capacities.
Vittal said that instead of jumping into the business of providing GPU services, Airtel will wait for the results and be a quick follower to build the capacities.
"Many of the investments that we made over the last 24 months and some of the investments we are continuing to make over the next 8 to 9 months will see significant capacities come on board in FY26 and FY27. In addition, we are having conversations with multiple very large players to look at what more we can do to help their plans," Vittal said.
He said that the company is not satisfied with 12 per cent market share and is looking for an opportunity to step up its game in the segment.
Vittal said that every business segment within Airtel will get its fair share of investment but wireless network capex will certainly come down.
During the fourth quarter of FY25, Airtel installed approximately 3,300 additional towers and 13,600 mobile broadband stations.
The company posted about a five-fold jump in consolidated net profit to Rs 11,022 crore in the March 2025 quarter, mainly due to the tariff hike impact and a one-time gain on tax benefits.
The company's revenue from operations grew 27 per cent to Rs 47,876.2 crore during the quarter under review from Rs 37,599.1 crore in the March 2024 quarter.
For the year ended March 2025, Airtel posted about a four-fold increase in consolidated net profit to Rs 33,556 crore from Rs 7,467 crore in FY24.
The annual revenue from operations of Bharti Airtel grew 15.33 per cent to Rs 1,72,985.2 crore in FY25 compared to Rs 1,49,982.4 crore in FY24.
