Bharti Hexacom is a pure-play telecom operator that runs mobile and broadband networks exclusively in two of India’s 22 telecom circles - Rajasthan and the North East - under the Airtel brand. Originally incorporated as Hexacom India in 1995, it became part of the Bharti Airtel group in 2004, gaining access to the group’s digital backbone, tools and brand. Everything the company does flows from a single recurring approach: premiumise the customer base - move people from 2G to 4G/5G, from prepaid to postpaid, and from single-service to converged bundles - and use data science to make the network smarter and the selling sharper.
Business segments
Two engines at different stages - a dominant mobile cash cow and a fast-growing broadband challenger - both built on the same network and brand, and both pushed by the same premiumisation playbook.
1. Mobile Services: the cash engine that funds everything else
A wireless business serving 28 million customers across two underserved circles, where the company is the revenue leader and grows by upgrading subscribers to higher-value plans rather than just adding numbers.
- Revenue leader in both circles - the company held a 43.1% revenue market share in Rajasthan and a 57.9% share in the North East as of FY25, making it the top operator in the North East and a significant player in Rajasthan.
- ARPU is the scorecard - the business is measured by Average Revenue Per User (the monthly revenue earned per customer), which reached Rs.257 in Q4 FY26, driven by upgrading customers from 2G to 4G/5G, prepaid to postpaid, and selling international roaming packs.
- Spectrum depth is the moat - the company holds the largest mid-band spectrum portfolio in its operating regions, including 1800, 2100 and 2300 MHz bands plus 900 MHz, 3500 MHz and 26 GHz, and acquired an additional 15 MHz spectrum in sub-GHz and mid-band frequencies in FY 2024-25, which it calls a distinctive advantage for delivering superior network experience.
- Rural reach is still expanding - tele-density in its circles (79.8% in Rajasthan, 80.9% in the North East) sits below the 85% national average, so the company has rolled out coverage across more than 6,000 villages in two years under its Rural Acceleration Program, unlocking access for over 6 million people.
- AI fights spam for free - the company launched India’s first AI-powered spam detection tool, built by Airtel engineers, which has flagged 94 spam calls per second since launch and identified 1.7 billion calls and 137 million SMS since its launch, giving customers a reason to stay that competitors cannot easily copy.
2. Homes and Offices: the broadband challenger riding the mobile base
A fixed-line and broadband business that uses an asset-light partnership model and converged mobile-plus-broadband plans to win homes in markets where fixed-line penetration is still in single digits.
- Partnered, not just built - instead of laying all the fibre itself, the company works with local cable operators (LCOs) to reach homes, while also rolling out Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) in 25 cities for areas where fibre is scarce, keeping the build-out capital-light.
- Convergence cuts churn - 43% of all broadband customer additions take a converged plan bundling mobile, broadband and DTH under the ‘Airtel Black’ proposition, and customers on converged plans churn at nearly half the rate of standalone broadband users.
- Fibre is being laid fast - the company rolled out roughly 43,000 km of fibre in FY26 and over 143,000 km over the last three years, ending FY26 with 45 million home passes, because it sees a medium-term market of nearly 100 million connected homes in India.
- IPTV is the new hook - after launching IPTV in the prior year, the company added 143K Homes net adds for the full year FY25, with IPTV adoption leading the charge and content partnerships with more than 22 OTT platforms and broadcasters integrated into the bundles.
Technology and AI capabilities
A cross-cutting digital engine - built on a proprietary Converged Data Engine - that powers network management, customer acquisition and spam protection across every business line.
- One brain for all data - the Converged Data Engine sits on top of the company’s data infrastructure, ingests signals from every database, and comes with inbuilt intelligence for next-best-action across sales and service, including a Customer Life Cycle Management tool with push/pull channel integration.
- AI at industrial scale - in Q4 FY26, the next-best-action model generated 135 million cross-sell actions, the voice AI bot processed 375 million customer interactions, and vision AI processed 256 million images, while AI contributed to nearly 30% of all code written at the company.
- Network that thinks - the company uses digital tools developed by Bharti Airtel - ACS for enhanced network experience and ASON for proactive network optimisation - and runs a state-of-the-art Network Operations Centre for real-time monitoring, with network planning increasingly done in-house to retain intellectual control.
Group structure and partners
Bharti Hexacom is a 70%-owned subsidiary of Bharti Airtel Limited, with no subsidiaries of its own - it operates standalone but leans heavily on the parent’s brand, digital tools and management.
- Parent provides the platform - the company accesses Airtel’s digital backbone, tools, brand and experienced management team, and all services are sold under the ‘Airtel’ brand.
- Tower sale paused - in February 2025, the company proposed selling its passive infrastructure business (roughly 3,400 telecom towers) to fellow Bharti Airtel subsidiary Indus Towers for up to ₹1,134 crore, but put the transaction in abeyance in April 2025 after a significant public-sector shareholder requested a fresh process.
- No subsidiaries, no joint ventures - the company operates on a standalone basis with no associates or joint ventures, and its CSR activities are implemented through the Bharti Airtel Foundation rather than a captive entity.