Airtel Business, the B2B arm of Bharti Airtel, is witnessing rapid growth in its Internet of Things (IoT) portfolio, emerging as a key player in India's connected technology landscape. With over 48 million IoT devices currently connected across a range of use cases, the company is doubling down on strategic investments in its proprietary IoT platform and custom-built network infrastructure to deliver scalable and secure solutions for enterprises.
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Airtel's Strategic Push in IoT
"For Airtel, IoT is amongst the fastest growing product portfolios in the enterprise space with a focus on doubling down growth. Our growth in this space is attributed to our consistent strategic investments in both our in-house IoT platform and a custom network built for IoT devices," said Sharat Sinha, Director and CEO, Airtel Business, in an interview with Entrepreneur. "We are increasingly combining connectivity and Cloud services, making our solutions an economical choice for customers."
The company is playing a crucial role in government-led digitisation initiatives such as the National Smart Grid Mission, which aims to reduce technical and commercial losses for power distribution companies (DISCOMs).
"In this area, we are working with SIs deploying the smart metering solutions and acting as one stop solution providers for the smart metering technology stack," he reportedly said, adding that IoT connectivity remains the company's largest contributor and the focus is expanding beyond core capabilities.
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Connected Car Ecosystem
A key area of growth is the automotive sector, where the connected car ecosystem in India has seen accelerated momentum over the past two to three years. Airtel is working closely with original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to enable connectivity solutions that address industry-specific challenges. These include multi-APN support to segregate infotainment and telematics traffic, as well as billing solutions that allow cost-sharing between OEMs and vehicle owners. Features like real-time driving analytics, emergency calling, and SOS services are also being enabled to enhance vehicle safety and performance.
"The focus of OEMs is to launch an Internet-enabled vehicle, wherein connectivity and smart features are at the core of the product offering. We tailor IoT solutions to cater to the distinct needs encountered by enterprises across the automobile domain. OEMs are looking for solutions to enable traffic segregation between infotainment and vehicle telematics, a problem we have solved by enabling multi-APN support. They are also looking to share the connectivity costs with the vehicle owner, which has been enabled by Airtel Business via an innovative multi-party billing solution," added the CEO, according to the report.
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Preparing for the 5G IoT Revolution
With 5G infrastructure expanding across the country, Airtel expects automotive OEMs to be the earliest adopters of high-bandwidth IoT applications such as in-car entertainment and real-time data services. Beyond these, the company is also preparing for the rollout of 5G Reduced Capability (RedCap) devices—ideal for wearables and industrial sensors requiring a balance of cost, performance, and power efficiency.
Airtel 5G RedCap
"Beyond these high-bandwidth applications, we anticipate that the broader 5G IoT market will also gravitate towards 5G Reduced Capability. Use cases such as advanced wearables, industrial sensors are ideal candidates for RedCap, offering a better balance of performance, power efficiency, and cost. Our core network already supports 5G RedCap. However, the widespread availability of cost-effective RedCap modules and the development of such solutions will take time to evolve," Sinha reportedly said.
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Expanding into New Vertical Use Cases
Looking ahead to FY26, Airtel Business plans to scale its IoT offerings in verticals such as asset tracking, energy management, and smart logistics. The company is also prioritising data security and compliance, with dedicated core network infrastructure that aligns with the Department of Telecom (DoT) guidelines for IoT communications. Customers are provided with tools to dynamically configure and enforce security rules in real-time.
"We have been building capabilities to ensure that our customers and their data always remain secure. Airtel Business strictly complies with the Department of Telecom's guidelines on IoT, which mandate restrictive communication for IoT devices. We have deployed dedicated core network infrastructure which enforces these policies stringently, while giving our customers the flexibility to dynamically configure and define rules on the fly," the CEO reportedly explained.
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Future Growth in Enterprise IoT
According to a report by IOT Analytics, as cited in the report, the enterprise IoT market is expected to re-accelerate in 2025, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 14 percent through 2030. Spending on IoT-related Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) and Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) is expected to grow even faster, at over 20 percent CAGR, driven by digitisation trends and increasing adoption of cloud-native IoT solutions.
Airtel Business is positioning itself to capitalise on this growth wave by offering scalable IoT solutions tailored to the evolving needs of enterprises across sectors.
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