Airtel outperforms Reliance Jio in Q3 revenue and ARPU; check earnings comparison

Telecom giant Bharti Airtel announced its third-quarter results on February 6 after market hours. The company’s stock reacted positively to December quarter earnings, rising 1.9% intraday to a day high of ₹2,031.40 per share on NSE.

Bharti Airtel is India’s second-largest telecom service provider in terms of client base and competes with Reliance Jio in the domestic market. Both companies have a large market share and operate as a duopoly in the Indian telecom market, with Reliance Jio having the highest number of wireless subscribers compared to Airtel. Meanwhile, Bharti Airtel leads in average revenue per user (ARPU), which is a key profitability metric.

*Consolidated net profit including African business

#Revenue and EBITDA are only for the India business for better comparison

As seen in the above table, Bharti Airtel India's business revenue of ₹39,226 crore is higher in comparison to Reliance Jio during the third quarter, largely due to higher ARPU.

Overall, revenue from the operation for Bharti Airtel stood at ₹53,982 crore, up 19.6% YoY and 3.5% QoQ, aided by continued growth in India and solid performance from Africa. India mobile revenue recorded a increase of 9.1% YoY, led by improved realisations and a growing customer base.

Bharti Airtel also has operations across 15 countries, offering mobile voice, data, and mobile money services across Nigeria, Kenya, Tanzania and many others.

Reliance Jio report higher profitability

In terms of Q3 profitability, Reliance Jio reported better numbers as its net profit stood at ₹7,629, up 11.2%YoY compared to Airtel's Q3 net profit of ₹6,631, down 55%YoY. Bharti Airtel's net profit declined significantly, largely due to the high base in Q3FY25 as the company reported an exceptional gain of ₹7,546 crore as Indus Towers was reclassified as Bharti Airtel's subsidiary. One-time provision of ₹257 crore for employee gratuity benefits, according to the new labour code, also impacted the profitability.

Airtel has industry leading ARPU

Bharti Airtel continued to increase its average revenue per user (ARPU) during the third quarter at ₹259 per user (▲ 5.7%YoY), driven by consumer upgrades, higher data consumption, and consistently improving portfolio mix. Airtel ARPU was higher compared to Reliance Jio ARPU of ₹213.7 (▲ 5.1%YoY).

This wider gap in ARPU is reflected in revenue as well, which in case of Airtel is higher despite having a lower customer base of 46.6 crore compared to Reliance Jio's customer base of 51.5 crore.

Stock performance of Airtel and Reliance Jio

So far in 2026, Airtel shares have underperformed and are down 3.6%, while Reliance Jio, which is a part of the Reliance Industries group, is still not listed on the stock market. But the company’s IPO is expected to come out in 2026. At the 48th Reliance Industries AGM, Mukesh Ambani made a formal announcement regarding plans to bring the Reliance Jio IPO soon.

As per media reports, Reliance Industries plans to offload 2.5% stake in the company worth $4.5 billion, which could make Reliance Jio's IPO the biggest IPO in India, surpassing Hyundai Motor India's $3.3 billion public issue. The parent company, Reliance Industries is awaiting regulatory approval from the Ministry of Finance to reduce the minimum size of share sale from 5% to 2.5%.