Airtel Behind Jio in Profits Despite Better ARPU, EBITDA Margin

Bharti Airtel, the second largest telecom operator, recently announced Q4 FY26 results. After the results, we compared it with Jio and saw that despite having a better ARPU (average revenue per user) and EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation), Airtel’s net profit was lesser than Jio’s. Reliance Industries has always focused on earning from scale. Airtel has positioned itself as a premium player and thus, it would rather have lesser customers, a better margin on services, than scale with a lower ARPU. Let’s dive into the key figures below.

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Airtel vs Jio Q4 FY26 Results: ARPU, EBITDA, and Net Profits

Jio ARPU figure stood at Rs 214 in Q4 FY26. There was basically no major increase in the ARPU. Airtel ARPU at the same time stood at Rs 257. What’s key here to understand is that Airtel actually saw its ARPU dipping from Rs 259 in the previous quarter to Rs 257 in the current one. Get more details on that here.

When it comes to EBITDA, Airtel EBITDA (consolidated) margin stood at 57.8% in Q4 FY26, meanwhile Jio’s EBITDA stood at 52.4%. So Airtel’s marins are clearly better. However, when it came to the net profits/net income for Q4 FY26, Airtel reported net profits of Rs 7,245 crore meanwhile Jio reported a net profit of Rs 7,935 crore.

This is because when it comes to monetisable mobile customer base in India, Jio has a bigger number under its portfolio. Along with that, Jio is larger than Airtel in the homes segment. Airtel is expanding AirFiber service, meanwhile Jio has clearly created a dominance in the segment with the rollout of UBR (unlicensed band radio) services as well.