Bharti Airtel vs Jio: Who performed better in Q2FY26 results?

Shares of Bharti Airtel are trading in green after the company announced their Q2 results on Tuesday. The company reported strong results for the quarter, with nearly double the net profit for the quarter. The telecom sector, in general, has reported a strong set of numbers for the quarter, with strong growth in ARPUs and record subscriber growth. Reliance’s Jio reported crossing the 500 million subscribers in the September quarter. On the other hand, Vodafone Idea is grappling with the AGR dues issue. The other two telecom companies are marching ahead with market share gains and strong operating performances

Rising subscriber base

The overall customer base for Bharti Airtel stood at ~624 million across 15 countries, while the domestic customer base stood at ~450 million, and the Africa subscriber base stood at 174 million. While Jio maintained its dominating position with 506 million subscribers, with 8.3 million net additions during the quarter. ARPUs also stood at record high levels for both telecom operators as they increased their base tariff rates. Airtel’s ARPU jumped from ₹233 per user to ₹256 per subscriber in Q2FY26. Similarly, Jio’s ARPU jumped from ₹195 per subscriber to ₹211 per subscriber for the same period.

Topline growth

With a strong rise in subscriber base and a jump in average revenue per user, the topline growth for both telecom operators jumped substantially for the quarter. Bharti Airtel’s consolidated revenue for the quarter jumped by 25.7% to ₹52,145 crore for the quarter. The India business revenue jumped 22.6% YoY to ₹38,690 crore. Similarly, for Jio, the total revenue for the quarter jumped to ₹31,857 crore as against ₹28338 crore in the previous year’s same quarter. The strong growth is led by higher ARPUs and improved realisations.

Operational efficiency

On the operational efficiency level, both telecom operators showed superior performance. At the consolidated level, Bharti Airtel’s EBITDA (Earnings before interest, taxes and depreciation) stood at ₹29,919 crore up by 35.9% YoY, while the EBITDA margin for the quarter stood at 57.4%. On the other hand, Reliance Jio’s EBITDA jumped 17% YoY to ₹17,874 crore, and the EBITDA margin expanded to 56% for the Q2FY25 vs 53.7% in the previous year’s same quarter.

Steady bottomline growth

At the bottom-line level, Reliance Jio reported 13% YoY jump in the profit after tax at ₹7,375 crore, while Bharti Airtel's net profit jumped 73% YoY to 6,792 crore for the quarter as against ₹3,911 crore in the same period last year.Considering the strong fundamental performance and improved market share gains, the share price has posted strong gains in 2025. On a YTD basis, Bharti Airtel delivered 34% returns in 2025, while Reliance Industries posted 21% returns in the same period. The tough share price performance of Reliance Industries is not directly comparable