<a href="https://www.mid-day.com/business/business-news/article/bharti-airtel-q2fy27-net-profit-rises-24-per-cent-to-rs-10710-crore-23658786" target="_blank" rel="none noopener">Telecom operator Bharti Airtel</a> has restored its Rs 299 entry-level prepaid plan, with reduced data following a churn in its customer base with a shift towards premium mobile plans, according to news agency PTI.
The company's Rs 299 recharge plan for 28 days validity now offers 1 GB data per day instead of 1.5 GB data earlier.
"The churn that we are seeing in Q2 (second quarter) is for us &ndash; largely is combination of two things - the seasonality of Q2 that comes in as well as tariff interventions that we took, where there is always a temporary impact on customer continuity," Bharti Airtel, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Shashwat Sharma said during company's earning call on Friday.
Citi Research in a report said that the company's net subscriber adds declined quarter on quarter from 3.3 million to 0.7 million on account of higher churn (up from 2.6 per cent to 2.9 per cent), "likely on account of the plan rationalisation step taken in August 2026, which involved discontinuation of the Rs 299 entry-level prepaid smartphone plan."&nbsp;
<h2>ARPU and customer base</h2>
According to Sharma the usual tariff increases have worked well for Bharti Airtel's quality customer base.
"I would say I don't see a constraint in terms of headroom or direct growth, etc. that we have, and if ever this happens, we firmly believe we will continue to build industry-leading ARPU in this business," he said.
The company which recently posted its financial results for the second quarter ended September 30, 2026, reported a 10.1 per cent increase in its India mobile service revenue over last year, led by customer additions. Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) rose to Rs 271 during the quarter under review from Rs 256 in Q2 FY26.
Its India customer base expanded by about 11 per cent to 49.86 crore. The <a href="https://www.mid-day.com/business/business-news/article/telecom-subscriber-base-rises-to-1348-crore-in-june-trai-23642023" target="_blank" rel="none noopener">mobile customer base</a> rose 3.6 per cent to 37.72 crore, and home service, which includes fixed line broadband services, grew by about 29 per cent to 1.53 crore, according to PTI.
<h2>Capital expenditure in data centres</h2>
The company's consolidated capital expenditure for Q2 FY27 was at Rs Rs 12,467 crore, which included a capex of Rs 9,908 crore in India.&nbsp;
Airtel invested Rs 2,826 crore in a strategic land parcel for data centre expansion in India and Bharti Airtel Executive Vice Chairman Gopal Vittal said the company will continue increasing capex in the data centre business and dividend payout.
"A lot of the incremental capex would really go behind the growth bets, which is data centres, as we spoke about and cloud. We have already announced a potential continued buyback in Airtel Africa. We've also done that in the Indus (Towers). So, that will continue. You will see that reflected in our conduct; dividend payouts will keep increasing over time," he said.
According to Vital the acquisition of land for <a href="https://www.mid-day.com/business/business-news/article/sunil-mittal-financial-services-data-centres-cloud-to-power-airtels-next-growth-phase-23639555" target="_blank" rel="none noopener">data centres</a> provides the company with the flexibility to develop a facility with a capacity of at least 400&ndash;500 MW over time.
"It's a large tract of land, and also it's concentrated in the right locations where the demand seems to be high. We will continue to look at other options for land and build out, as some of that demand from the US may get directed towards India," he said.
He said a substantial capex would be earmarked over the next 12 to 18 months for data centre build-out in Visakhapatnam.&nbsp;
(With inputs from PTI)

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