Indian telecom operator Bharti Airtel appears to have started offering Apple Music subscription to its prepaid users as part of its content bundling strategy, giving them access to ad-free music. This follows Airtel’s partnership with Apple, announced in August 2024, aimed at bringing premium entertainment to Airtel customers in India with exclusive offers for Apple TV+ and Apple Music.
In February 2025, Airtel introduced Apple Music and Apple TV+ benefits for its Wi-Fi and postpaid customers. Now, it seems the company has begun extending Apple Music to prepaid users as well. While there has been no official announcement, the Apple Music subscription offer appeared on the Airtel Thanks app, stating: “Get Apple Music at no extra cost for up to 6 months.”
Apple Music Comes to Airtel Prepaid
Prepaid customers can claim this subscription. Eligible customers will receive up to six months of free Apple Music, after which Rs 119 per month will be charged to their selected payment method. Although the eligibility criteria are not yet clear, users can check their Airtel Thanks app for availability. Interestingly, the benefit was accessible on a non-Unlimited 5G plan.
Airtel Perplexity Partnership
In July 2025, Airtel also announced a partnership with Perplexity AI to provide all subscribers complimentary access to Perplexity Pro — a plan valued at Rs 17,000 annually — which includes advanced model access, file uploads, image generation, and other premium features.
Airtel’s Content Strategy
During the recent Q1 FY26 earnings call, Gopal Vittal, Vice Chairman and Managing Director of Bharti Airtel Limited, highlighted the company’s content strategy: “On content, we have a slate of the most compelling content covering 25 OTT apps in India within the Xstream platform. We have a partnership with Amazon, we have a partnership with Disney, we have a partnership with Netflix, we have a partnership with Zee and we are exclusively available on Apple. A second example is our partnership with Google that allows us to offer complimentary Cloud storage to our broadband customers. And the last example is our breakthrough partnership with Perplexity that empowers our customers with innovative technology and cutting edge AI capabilities. We are seeing strong customer engagement within a few days of the launch and have already climbed to over 5 million and growing every day.”
Soumen Ray, Chief Financial Officer (India and South Asia) of Bharti Airtel Limited and Non-Executive Director of Bharti Hexacom Limited, further explained the rationale behind these partnerships: “Why did we bring Perplexity? This is a tool which was lauded globally and we felt if we bring it to our customers, our customers will feel that we are not just providing them a mobility service. We are also trying to make their life better by giving them an opportunity to experience some of these things, whether it is Google Cloud storage or having Perplexity.”
He added: “Similarly, we have some extended tie-ups with some of the OTT players, which is only exclusive to us. We try to bring them on board and give that experience to people. So the whole idea is that other than pure mobility or home services, can we bring something extra to the customers which they see value, introduce them, and then they can evaluate whether they want to commercially continue it or not.”
Airtel has revised its existing Rs 361 bulk data pack. The pack has undergone several iterations, and the latest revision extends its benefit validity from 30 days to 90 days. Previously, the pack offered 50GB of data for 30 days. Now, customers can enjoy the same 50GB benefit over a period of 90 days, offering more flexibility in usage. After the quota is exhausted, data will be charged at Rs 0.50 per MB.
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