Airtel has reported consolidated mobile data revenue of Rs 2,114 crore, up by 74.3% YoY in India, for the quarter ended December 31, 2014. The company has disclosed that the mobile data revenues now contribute more than 85% of the incremental revenues of the company.
Consolidated revenues for the quarter were at Rs 23,217 crore, up by 5.8% YoY. Net Income was at Rs 1,436 crore, up by 135.4% YoY. India revenues registered a growth of 12.6% Y-o-Y across segments, led by 13.0% in Mobile, 13.2% in Telemedia and 15.8% in Digital TV. Mobile voice realisation in India improved to 37.67p per minute (up 0.45p Y-o-Y).
Other highlights
- Customer base in India as of December 31, 2014 was at 217Mn, up by 9% YoY
- As on December 31, 2014, the company had 217.2 Mn GSM customers as compared to 198.5 Mn in the
corresponding quarter last year, an increase of 9.4%.
- Mobile data connections was at 42.2Mn or about 19.5% of total customers, up from 40.1 Mn connections in previous quarter (up by 5%)
- It reports 3G data customers were at 16.9Mn in the country, up by 10% QoQ and 92% YoY.
- Its 2G data connections were at 25Mn in the country, up from 23Mn in the same quarter last year.
- Total data consumed on the network was at 77.28 billion MB, up by 14% QoQ from 67.67 billion MB, and up by 94% YoY from 39.93 billion MB.
- Data usage per customer also increased from 563MBs in previous quarter to 622MBs in this quarter, up by 10% QoQ and up by 38% YoY from 450MBs in the same quarter last year.
- Data average revenue per user increased from 150MBs from previous quarter to 170MBs in this quarter, up by 13% QoQ and up by 25% YoY from 137MBs in the same quarter last year.
Looking at the increase in data usage, in terms of data consumed and data average revenue per user, it's quite evident that the data usage in the country is steadily increasing. Both, 3G and 2G data users and usage has increased significantly. The stellar report is from the same company that just couple of days ago wanted to charge its users for making VoIP calls from 2G or 3G networks. Although, Airtel has since then withdrawn the proposal, it seems that the company is trying to maximise revenues of its already growing business. Note that, in this quarter, Airtel reported that the mobile data revenues now contribute more than 85% of the incremental revenues of the company.
