Summary:
Bharti Airtel is shifting its home broadband strategy toward fibre, while deploying Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) selectively in areas where fibre is unavailable. The move has reduced Airtel’s FWA subscriber additions, which fell to 83,377 in the April-June 2026 quarter from 665,842 in the previous quarter, as the company focuses more on profitability, customer quality and reducing churn. Airtel plans to expand fibre in major markets while using FWA where it offers stronger economics, aiming to build a more sustainable home broadband business.
India’s second-largest telecom operator, Bharti Airtel, is revising its home broadband approach by prioritising fibre expansion and using fixed wireless access (FWA) only in locations where fibre connectivity cannot be deployed.
“We have decided to pivot to fibre and make sure that FWA only goes where fibre is not accessible,” Gopal Vittal, Executive Vice Chairman of Airtel, said during the company’s Q1 FY2027 earnings call. He explained that this strategic shift contributed to a temporary slowdown in the company’s FWA business, but growth is beginning to recover as fibre is expanded and FWA is deployed more selectively.
Data from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) showed that Airtel had 3.8 million subscribers at the end of June 2026. During the April-June 2026 quarter, Airtel added only 83,377 5G FWA subscribers, sharply lower than the 665,842 additions recorded during the January-March 2026 quarter.
By comparison, Reliance Jio, India’s largest telecom operator, added 530,247 FWA subscribers during the April-June 2026 quarter, following 662,222 additions in the previous quarter.
Airtel’s lower FWA subscriber additions reflect a shift away from simply increasing customer numbers towards improving profitability and subscriber quality. FWA has become one of the key 5G use cases in India, but Airtel’s revised strategy aligns with its broader focus on premium customers and stronger subscriber quality.
Shashwat Sharma, Managing Director and CEO of Airtel India, said the company’s earlier low-entry pricing helped attract customers but did not consistently deliver the quality of customer base it was targeting. He pointed to higher churn and weaker continuity among certain customer groups, while rising global memory and chipset costs have also put pressure on the economics of the business.
As a result, Airtel has reassessed its FWA strategy. Sharma said the company has tightened its customer acquisition approach, increased its focus on reducing churn and is working towards a healthier business model. He added that Airtel remains confident about sustainable growth in the home broadband segment by accelerating fibre deployment and using FWA more selectively where customer quality and economics are attractive.
Since introducing 5G-based home broadband services in 2023, Airtel and Jio have relied on FWA to expand broadband availability more quickly and at a lower cost than extensive fibre deployment. Vittal noted that nearly 95% of the market is concentrated across 400 cities, where Airtel is increasing its fibre focus while also managing rising memory-related costs.
Vittal also highlighted challenges associated with FWA installation, noting that deploying the technology in unsuitable locations can create operational difficulties. In such cases, the company may have to recover the equipment and redeploy it elsewhere, increasing costs and making it harder to maintain a sustainable business.
