Airtel eyes UBR to drive the next phase of broadband growth

Bharti Airtel, India’s second-largest telecom provider, expects the home broadband market to triple to 100 million users in the coming years. This segment is particularly attractive for operators, as it offers access to high-value customers. However, telcos face a major challenge: they cannot lay fibre across the entire country. With fibre connectivity still limited to select areas, operators have introduced Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) services to bridge the gap. These services are now live, yet they too cannot reach every location.

During Airtel’s Q2 FY26 earnings call, CEO Gopal Vittal said,“We are currently experimenting and doing the trials on UBR. As I mentioned in previous quarters, the problem with UBR is interference in crowded areas because it uses the same Wi-Fi band as homes. You may occasionally experience browsing issues at home, which are actually caused by interference in the lower band of the Wi-Fi frequency.”

He added, “Although this is a trial region, I think UBR has a real chance to go into less populated areas, isolated places, rural areas, small towns, where the density of fibre presence is low. That is now being evaluated.”

Reliance Jio, India’s largest telecom operator, has also introduced UBR services and has already outpaced Airtel in customer acquisition through its use of the technology. Supported by its FWA services, Jio’s home broadband business has been expanding rapidly, adding over a million new customers every month. UBR has been central to enabling this growth, allowing Jio to deliver broadband connectivity more efficiently and at a lower cost.

Unlicensed Band Radio (UBR) enables telecom operators to provide wireless connectivity using unlicensed spectrum, radio frequencies that do not require government licensing fees. This makes it a highly cost-effective option, particularly in regions where deploying traditional wired broadband is too costly or impractical.

For Jio, UBR has offered a strong competitive advantage by underpinning its FWA network and enabling broadband delivery through wireless links rather than fibre. Leveraging UBR has allowed the company to scale its footprint at extraordinary speed, strengthening its broadband business and supporting consistent revenue growth. According to Jefferies, Jio’s Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) is expected to grow at an 11% CAGR to Rs 272 between FY25 and FY28, driven by UBR-led expansion and anticipated tariff hikes.