Bharti Airtel on Monday announced its fourth quarter and year ended March 2020 results with the company posting a net loss of Rs 5237 crores including exceptional items. However, the company said that it had “highest mobile India” average revenue per user (ARPU) of Rs 154 in the fourth quarter ended March 2020. In the previous year quarter ended March 2019, Bharti Airtel had an ARPU of Rs 123. The company said that it added 12.5 million subscribers in the fourth quarter ended March 2020 while the data usage per subscriber is said to be at 14.6GB per month.
Bharti Airtel Total Mobile Data Increases 74.2%
Bharti Airtel said that it witnessed a total mobile data traffic of 6010 PB in the fourth quarter ended March 2020 as compared to 3451 PB in the previous year quarter. The company said that the total mobile data traffic in India represented a 74% increase as compared to the prior year quarter.
“These are unprecedented times for every one across the world as we battle the impact of COVID-19 and its consequent impact on livelihoods,” Gopal Vittal, CEO of Bharti Airtel, India and South Asia, said in a release. “Even in this difficult time, it is our investments in network technologies coupled with our culture of customer obsession that has allowed us to keep the nation connected and serve our customers.”
Further, the company reported that its mobile revenues in India increased 21.8% YoY with Airtel attributing the increase in revenues to growth in subscriber base along with the “improved tariffs.” It has to be noted that telecom operators in India including Airtel hiked the tariffs in late 2019.
“It is abundantly clear today that telecom has played an essential role in keeping the country going,” Mittal said. “We are therefore hopeful that the government will implement the recommendations of the Trai and the intent of the New Telecom Policy and bring down the high levels of regulatory levies and taxes that the sector is subjected to.”
The company said that it has over 160 million Monthly Active Users (MAU) across its digital assets including Airtel Thanks, Wynk and Xstream. Airtel highlighted that 60% of its entire business happens on its digital channels with the Airtel Thanks platform said to be the second largest platform for user payments.
Airtel Registers Dip in ARPU of Digital TV
The company reported ARPU of Rs 123 for its Digital Services segment in the quarter ended March 2020 as compared to Rs 162 in the previous quarter. However, Airtel said that its DTH arm witnessed an revenue growth of 16.9% YoY on the “underlying” basis. The company highlighted that the “underlying” basis refers to the New Tariff Order implemented by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India in 2019.
Meanwhile, Airtel reported an ARPU of Rs 803 in its Homes Services segment for the quarter ended March 2020 as compared Rs 787 in the previous quarter. The company said that the Homes Services represents the fixed line telephone services as well as the broadband services that Airtel operates in 111 cities across India.
