Bharti Airtel Mobile 4G Data Customer Base Jumped to 65.7 Million in Q2 FY19

Gopal Vittal, MD and CEO (India & South Asia), Bharti Airtel, said the average revenue per user (ARPU) decline has “moderated” this quarter driven by the focus on quality customers through simplified pricing and content partnerships. “We remain focused on driving quality base growth with value adding propositions for our customers. We also remain committed to investing in enhanced capacities and have deployed 27000+ broadband sites during the quarter, enabling a 239% YoY growth in mobile data volumes,” Vittal added.

The total revenues from India-South Asia operations at Rs 15,022.3 crore in July-September was lower than Rs 16,826.5 crore in the same period a year ago. The revenue from Africa business, however, rose to Rs 5,647.2 crore during September quarter from Rs 5,203 crore in the same period of the previous year.

In a statement announcing the Q2 earnings, Airtel said the consolidated mobile data and voice traffic grew 225% and 55% respectively year-on-year. Overall, the customer base stood at 445 million across 16 countries, up 15% year-on-year excluding divested units. Airtel also stated that mobile data traffic has grown more than 3X to 2,660 Billion MB in Q2 from 784 Billion MD in Q2 FY18. Likewise, mobile voice traffic has grown by 59% from 437 Billion minutes in Q2 FY18 to 693 Billion in Q2 FY19.

“India revenues for Q2’19 at Rs 14,920 crore have declined by 3.6% year-on-year (declined 10.9% on a reported basis) on an underlying basis. Mobile revenues have witnessed year on year de-growth of 7.2% on an underlying basis led by continued average revenue per user down-trading impacted by competitive pricing pressures,” the statement said.

The company said other businesses for India continue to experience healthy growth. Airtel said mobile 4G data customers jumped 132% to 65.7 million from 28.3 million in the corresponding quarter of the last year. “In constant currency terms, Africa revenues grew by 10.8% year on year led by strong growth in data and Airtel money transaction value,” the statement added.

Consolidated EBITDA at Rs 6,343 crore represented a drop of 20.7% over the year ago period. Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation or EBITDA reflects a company’s operating performance.

The consolidated EBITDA margin fell to 31.1% in September 2018 quarter from 36.8%. Its consolidated net debt for the company increased to Rs 1,13,204 crore as compared to Rs 1,029,02.8 crore for the previous quarter. The company’s board has declared an interim dividend of Rs 2.50 per equity share of Rs 5 each for the financial year 2018-19, Airtel said in a regulatory filing.