Sunil Mittal Says Airtel Is Ready for Its Next Inflection Point as 6G and Data Centres Beckon

Sunil Bharti Mittal, Chairman of Bharti Enterprises, said Airtel is ready for its next inflection point, pointing to a strong balance sheet and cash flows as the company looks at financial services, data centres and other businesses. Mittal made the remarks in an exclusive conversation with NDTV on NDTV Walk The Talk, NDTV Profit reported on November 13, 2026.

Mittal's Case for Airtel's Next Moves

Mittal said every company goes through inflection points when it needs to pivot, recalling how Airtel moved early from being a mobile operator to a fixed-line operator. "Currently, where we are, things are pretty settled. Balance sheet is strong, cash flow is strong. This is the time for Airtel to make moves," he said.

Mittal said he was excited about Airtel's financial services business and highlighted the company's large franchise in Africa. Airtel Money in Africa has around 40 crore customers, he said. Airtel Payments Bank has been doing well for several years and is profitable, with revenue of around Rs 4,000 crore and deposits of Rs 4,000 crore, although it cannot lend, he said.

On data centres, Mittal said Airtel is not currently superior in the business itself but is "very strong on connectivity", and provides connectivity to several other data centres. He expects two to four large Indian companies to emerge as frontrunners in the data centre business, with Airtel among the main players. CNBCTV18 reported that Mittal discussed plans to expand data centre capacity to 1 gigawatt by 2030 and to raise promoter stake above 50%.

Mittal said most countries are moving towards having two to three operators and stressed that companies should have the financial capacity to invest when 6G arrives. He expects India to have 6G by 2030 and believes it will develop into a sensing network. CNBCTV18 reported that Mittal said Airtel could become the world's first telecom company with one billion customers, citing about 400 million customers in India and nearly 200 million in Africa, with another 400 million expected.

On satellite communications, Mittal said he was not perturbed about satellite telephony in India, pointing out that OneWeb has limited capacity for the service and that it would generate only a small amount of revenue. Responding to Elon Musk's impatience over Starlink approvals, Mittal said, "We have been waiting for nods longer than Musk." He said nations take time to assess security risks before allowing foreign players to control critical infrastructure. "We can have foreign assets in India but the kill switch has to be in our hands," he said. Mittal added that two OneWeb centres have been fully security-cleared and approved, while the company is waiting for the government to take a call on satellite telephony. The Times of India reported on November 12, 2026, that Mittal said Bharti Group is open to raising its OneWeb stake to 30% and ruled out majority control.

Airtel's Balance Sheet in Company Records

According to akta.pro company records, S&P Global upgraded Bharti Airtel's long-term issuer credit rating from BBB to BBB+ with a stable outlook in June 2026, citing 8-10% projected annual EBITDA growth and Africa earnings rising to 25-27% of consolidated EBITDA by FY28. The same records show Airtel consolidated control of Airtel Africa in June 2026 by acquiring an additional 16.31% stake from promoter entity ICIL via a Rs. 28,200 crore cashless share-swap, raising its holding to about 79% from 62.73%. The records list 650+ million customers in 15 countries across India and Africa, with networks covering 2+ billion people.

Earlier Moves in Airtel's Data Centre Push

Airtel built an in-house AI agent platform called Agent Bridge and added GPU capacity across its data centres, TelecomTalk reported in November 2026. Moneycontrol.com reported in November 2026 that Airtel is expanding its data centre footprint in India, expecting demand to shift from the US as US capacity becomes constrained, and invested about Rs 2,900 crore in a land parcel that could support a 400-500 MW facility, with Nxtra aiming for 1 GW of capacity. TelecomTalk reported in November 2026 that Airtel added 9,803 route km of optical fibre in India during the quarter ended September 30, 2026, bringing its network to 552,373 route km.