Telecom infrastructure is deployed extensively across the country, with lakhs of BTS towers and small cells requiring electricity to operate. In the event of power failures or interruptions, telecom equipment falls back on battery, diesel, or solar backup systems to provide users with uninterrupted connectivity. You may have encountered situations where specific towers or locations experience poor connectivity or a “No Network” state during power disruptions. These issues are often caused by prolonged power outages, diesel supply constraints, and rising fuel costs.
Rising Fuel Prices Increase Pressure on Telecom Infrastructure Providers
According to the industry body Digital Infrastructure Providers Association (DIPA), widespread power outages in several states, with disruptions lasting between four and six hours daily, have significantly increased reliance on diesel generators for backup power. According to media reports on Tuesday, May 19, 2026, diesel prices increased by 91 paise per litre and petrol prices by 87 paise per litre, marking the second increase within a week. This is expected to increase operational costs for infrastructure providers and the telecom industry overall, making it less viable for operators to continue running towers on diesel-based backup systems.
Airtel and Indus Towers Focus on Clean Energy Transition
In a statement, Gopal Vittal, Executive Vice Chairman, said:
“…a major focus for us is to completely eliminate diesel from our operations. We are working with Indus Towers to scale clean energy.”
During the Bharti Airtel and Bharti Hexacom Q4 FY26 Earnings call, Soumen Ray, Group Chief Financial Officer, said:
“With Indus, we are working towards significantly reducing dependence of diesel by transitioning towards high-powered batteries and renewable power. We strongly believe that work across these areas will provide meaningful outcomes with superior revenue growth and cost efficiencies.”
During the Q4 FY26 Earnings call, Shashwat Sharma, Managing Director and CEO (Airtel India) said: “A key focus area is increasing the use of energy from alternate to renewable sources. This is reflected in our continued expansion of solar power deployment across our network infrastructure. We ended the year with 42,000 network sites which have solar access. Over the last 2 years, we have solarized nearly 27,000 network sites.”
Airtel’s War on Waste
Speaking about cost pressures on the company, Sharma said: “The last and fourth pillar of our strategy is war on waste. As there are cost headwinds on both OpEx and CapEx, I want to underscore that we have widened the funnel to identify and eliminate waste across the organisation. While unpredictable scenarios are playing out globally, the cost pressures we are seeing today remain confined to a few specific areas, particularly in servers and memory prices, as well as availability of these components. Significant steps to re-engineer and redesign are underway in the organisation to mitigate these pressures.”
Reduce Dependency on Diesel Consumption
Commenting on reducing diesel consumption, Sharma added:
“We’ve also taken significant steps to reduce our dependency on diesel consumption across our sites. These initiatives are beginning to deliver meaningful outcomes, and we believe there is a lot of work still to be done in this space of war on waste. To sum up, overall we delivered another year and a quarter of strong performance, underpinned by strength of our diversified portfolio and sharp execution. Looking ahead, we continue to see large growth opportunities across mobility, led by ARPU growth through portfolio premiumisation and postpaid, rapid expansion of homes, and across B2B.”
Conclusion
It appears that Airtel is aiming to completely eliminate diesel from its network operations. From its Green 5G initiative and efforts to enhance energy efficiency through tower solarisation to its plan to phase out diesel use across network operations, the company is pushing toward cleaner, more sustainable telecom infrastructure. If these initiatives scale successfully, Airtel users could experience more reliable network connectivity with reduced dependence on diesel-powered backup systems. India’s telecom sector may gradually move toward greener and more energy-efficient networks in the coming years.
You can read more about Airtel’s solarisation and sustainability initiatives in the links below:
Q4FY25: Airtel Solarises Over 30,000 Network Sites in Major ESG Milestone
Q3FY25: Airtel Solarises Over 3300 Network Sites in Q3, Infuses AI Into Network for Energy Optimisation
Green Sites: Over Half of Airtel’s Network Sites Are Now Green
Q2FY25: Airtel Solarises Over 3,500 Mobile Sites in Q2
Green 5G Initiative: Bharti Airtel Launches Green 5G Initiative to Enhance Energy Efficiency
Recycled PVC SIM Cards: Airtel Introduces Recycled PVC SIM Cards in Collaboration With IDEMIA
Nxtra DC: Nxtra by Airtel Boosts Renewable Energy Use by 41 Percent
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FAQs
Why is Airtel reducing diesel usage in telecom operations?
Airtel aims to reduce operational costs, improve sustainability, and lower dependence on diesel generators during power outages.
How many Airtel network sites have solar access?
The company said it ended FY26 with around 42,000 network sites that have solar access.
What role does Indus Towers play in this initiative?
Indus Towers is working with Airtel to expand clean energy deployment and reduce diesel dependency across telecom towers.
Why do telecom towers need backup power systems?
Telecom towers require backup systems such as batteries, diesel generators, or solar power to maintain connectivity during electricity outages.
How could this benefit Airtel users?
Reduced reliance on diesel and increased renewable energy deployment could improve network uptime and provide more stable connectivity during power disruptions.
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