India’s telecom industry is finally shifting from years of financial stress to a multi-year phase of profitability.Bharti Airtel, Reliance Jio, and Vodafone Idea (Vi) saw a healthy growth in their respective revenues in the fiscal second quarter (Q2FY26). Airtel’s revenue grew the highest at 12% year-on-year, followed by Jio with a 10 % year-on-year increase, while Vi’s net revenues were up by 4% year-on-year.The Sunil Mittal-led telco’s revenue was driven by a 10% rise in average revenue per user (ARPU), whereas for the Mumbai-headquartered Jio, the revenue was led by 6% year-on-year growth in subscriber tally. Vi’s net revenues, by contrast, grew by 4% year-on-year due to ARPU growth – 11% year-on-year – despite continued subscriber losses, with the base down by 6% year-on-year.
The recent performance of one company that has reignited the hopes of retail investors is that of the defunct telecom, Vodafone Idea (VI). Lot of small investors were trapped in this company due to investment at higher levels of share prices, but, the recent rally has rekindled hopes that someday they might get a chance to recover their buying cost and eventually sell their holdings and come out of it.As of November, VI’s market cap stood at ₹1,16,685.45 crore. While, total debt was ₹1,96,410.40 crore.The debt-ridden telecom’s consolidated net loss narrowed to ₹5,524.2 crore for the second quarter of the 2025-26 financial year (Q2FY26), compared to the ₹7,175.9 crore loss it had logged in the year-ago period. In the previous quarter, it had clocked a net loss of ₹6,608 crore, the company said in a regulatory filing. The country's third-largest telecom service provider witnessed a 2.41% year-on-year (YoY) rise in its revenue from operations, which stood at ₹11,194.7 crore during the quarter under review.
In the September quarter of the 2024-25 fiscal year (Q2FY25), it had clocked a revenue of ₹10,932.2 crore. Sequentially, its revenue increased by 1.6% from ₹11,022 crore in the first quarter of FY26. At an operational level, it's reported that EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortisation) advanced 2.97% YoY to ₹4,685.1 crore in Q2FY26, as opposed to ₹4,549.8 crore in the corresponding period of the previous fiscal year. It's reported EBITDA margin expanded to 41.9%, in contrast to 41.6% on a YoY basis. The company's customer average revenue per use (ARPU), a key profitability metric for telcos, stood at ₹180 for the second quarter of FY26, marking an 8.7% YoY growth from ₹166 crore in the year-ago period, bolstered primarily by customer upgrades and tariff increases.While an increase in average revenue per user (ARPU) due to a tariff hike helped VIL improve its financial performance, the company continues to record a dip in its subscriber base, both on a quarterly and year-over-year (YoY) basis.Brokerage firm Citi has maintained a 'Buy' rating on Vodafone Idea with a target price of ₹14, categorising it as a high-risk stock.