Airtel Working to Reduce Dependence on Diesel Amidst Fuel Price Hike

Bharti Airtel, the second-largest telecom operator in India, wants to reduce its dependence on diesel for power requirements. For the unaware, telecom operators, including Airtel requires diesel to fuel its tower opex (operational expenditure). The rise in fuel prices, including petrol and diesel will result in an increased cost of tower opex for Airtel and the industry. To counter this, Airtel is working with Indus Towers, to reduce its dependence on diesel.

• Make Telecom Talk My Trusted Source
• 
• 

Airtel Looks for Alternate Sources of Energy

Bharti Airtel is looking for other sources of energy to reduce the dependence on diesel. The telco will most likely look at solar power options (green energy options) to reduce costs in the long run.

In the Q4 FY26 results, Airtel said, “We are amplifying our efforts, in collaboration with Indus Towers, to significantly reduce dependence on diesel by transitioning to high powered batteries and alternate sources of energy.”

Indus Towers is now owned by Bharti Airtel. The telco owns over 51% stake in the tower company and thus, working with Indus as a customer is now easier for Airtel. Bharti Group is already working to reduce its carbon footprint as fast as possible. To that extent, the telco would have reduced its dependence on traditional fuel sources such as petrol and diesel anyway. But now, due to the rising prices, which are expected to rise even further in the near future, Airtel will likely speed up this process.

Airtel disel usage metric usage is not available publicly thus we can’t comment on how much the price change would affect the telecom operator in terms of cash outflow. However, one thing is for sure, to offset the rising costs of business, and then earn a better margin on top of that, Airtel could go for a tariff hike in the near future.