iWorld
Airtel’s mobile services revenue grew by 20.3 per cent in Q2’22
Mumbai: Bharti Airtel Ltd (Airtel) has announced its audited consolidated second quarter results for the quarter ended on 30 September. The telecom company’s India revenues grew by 18.3 per cent year-on-year (YoY) to reach Rs 19,890 crore and mobile revenues grew by 20.3 per cent YoY on the basis of increase in ARPU and strong 4G customer addition.
“The ARPU for the quarter came in at Rs 153 compared to Rs 143 in Q2’21 on a comparable basis, validating our strategy of focusing on quality customers,” the company said in a statement on Tuesday.
The consolidated revenues for Q2’22 at Rs 28,326 crore grew 18.8 per cent YoY on a comparable basis and 13.0 per cent YoY on a reported basis. Consolidated mobile data traffic at 10,943 PBs in the quarter with a healthy YoY growth of 47.8 per cent.
“The company continues to gain a strong share of the 4G customers in the market” it said. 4G data customers increased by 26.1 per cent YoY to 192.5 million. Over the last four quarters, the company has added 39.9 million 4G customers to its network. “ARPU continues to be the best in industry, average data usage per data customer at 18.6 GBs/month and voice usage per customer at 1,053 mins /month,” a statement further said.
Airtel has rolled out additional ~3,500 towers and ~56K mobile broadband base stations in the quarter. Several initiatives have also been undertaken to improve network quality – leveraging digital tools/probes to monitor and improve customer experience and scaling up Vo-Wi-Fi adoption to improve indoor experience. “We now have over 33 million customers using our Vo-Wi-Fi services,” it said.
Homes business segment witnessed a revenue growth of 21.3 per cent YoY with highest ever customer net additions of ~467K during the quarter to reach a total base of 3.8 million. It said, “We continued to expand our offering at a fast pace to non-wired cities through the LCO model. We now live in 436 cities through this model, with overall operations in 523 cities.”
Airtel Business saw 11.5 per cent YoY growth, driven by demand for connectivity, connectivity related solutions and CPaaS (Communication Platform as a Service) across global business and domestic businesses, said the company.
Airtel announced investment of Rs 5,000 crore on ‘Nxtra by Airtel’ network of hyperscale and edge data centres by tripling the data centre capacity to over 400MW by 2025 to meet the surging demand.
Digital TV witnessed a revenue growth of 5.7 per cent YoY and continued to strengthen its leadership position with a customer base of 18 million at the end of quarter.
The digital services offerings of Airtel have a customer base of over 180 million MAUs across key digital assets – Thanks, Wynk, Xstream. “There are over 1.2 million retailers transacting and making payments every day on Mitra App,” said the company.
During the quarter, Airtel Payments Bank turned profitable with a strong total customer base of over 115 million and highly engaged Monthly Transacting Users (MTU) base of over 31 million.
“We welcome the reforms announced by the government for the telecom industry and believe this will add to the ability of the industry to invest so as to drive India’s digital story,” said Bharti Airtel Ltd managing director and chief executive officer for India and South Asia Gopal Vittal. “We hope the reforms momentum will continue and all longstanding issues impacting the industry will be addressed.”
“Our strategy of focusing on quality customers has been validated by the strong price flow and ARPU increase that we have seen in our wireless business. The step up in performance of our enterprise and homes business reflects the resilience and strength of our overall portfolio. Even more exciting is the way our new businesses – Airtel Payments Bank, Data Centres and revenues from digital services are shaping up. With a future proofed 5G network, we are well positioned to build a strong Airtel of the future,” he added.
iWorld
Micro-Dramas Surge in India, Redefining Mobile Content Habits
Meta-Ormax study maps rapid rise of short-form storytelling among 18–44 audiences.
MUMBAI: Micro-dramas aren’t just short, they’re the snack that ate Indian entertainment, and now everyone’s bingeing between the sofa cushions. Meta, in partnership with Ormax Media, has released ‘Micro Dramas: The India Story’, a comprehensive study unveiled at the inaugural Meta Marketing Summit: Micro-Drama Edition. The report maps how the vertical, bite-sized format is reshaping content consumption for mobile-first audiences aged 18–44 across 14 states.
Conducted between November 2025 and January 2026 through 50 in-depth interviews and 2,000 personal surveys, the research reveals that 65 per cent of viewers discovered micro-dramas within the last year proof of explosive adoption. Nearly 89 per cent encounter the format through social feeds and recommendations, making algorithm-driven discovery the primary engine rather than active search.
Key viewing patterns show a median of 3.5 hours per week (about 30 minutes daily) spread across 7–8 short sessions. Consumption peaks between 8 pm and midnight, with additional spikes during commutes and work breaks classic “in-between moments” that the format fills perfectly. Around 57 per cent of viewing happens in ambient mode (while doing something else), and 90 per cent is solo, enabling more intimate, personal storytelling.
Romance, family drama and comedy lead genre preferences. Audiences show growing openness to AI-generated content, 47 per cent find it unique and creative, while only 6 per cent say they would avoid it entirely. Regional languages are surging after Hindi and English, Tamil, Telugu and Kannada dominate consumption.
Meta, director, media & entertainment (India) Shweta Bajpai said, “Micro-drama isn’t a passing trend, it’s rewriting the rules of Indian entertainment. In under a year, an entirely new category of platforms has emerged, built audience habits from scratch, and created a business vertical that is scaling fast.”
Ormax Media founder-CEO Shailesh Kapoor added, “Micro-dramas are beginning to show the early signs of becoming a distinct content category in India’s digital entertainment landscape. When a format aligns closely with how audiences naturally engage with their devices, it has the potential to scale very quickly.”
The study proposes ecosystem-wide responsibility, universal signposting of commercial intent, shared accountability among advertisers, platforms, creators, schools and parents, built-in safeguards, and formal media literacy in schools.
In a feed that never sleeps and a day that never stops, micro-dramas have slipped into the cracks of every spare minute turning 30-second stories into the new national pastime, one vertical swipe at a time.
