Bharti Airtel on Tuesday reported its second-quarter financial results for the period ended September 30, 2020, with the company highlighting that its 4G subscriber base hit 152.7 million. The second-largest wireless operator in India said that its 4G user base was up by 14.4 million for the quarter while its average revenue per user (ARPU) touched Rs 162. The company said that its APRU in the same period in the previous financial year was at Rs 128. Crucially, Airtel recorded consolidated quarterly revenues of Rs 25,785 crores, up 22% year-over-year (YoY) for the quarter ended September 30, 2020. Further, its earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) for its second quarter was up 32.6% YoY.
Monthly Data Usage Per Airtel User at 16GB
Bharti Airtel said that its “usage metrics remain best in class” with the company registering the average data usage per user at 16GB per month. The company also said that it offers “brilliant network experience” with a network portfolio of over 200,000 towers, adding over 5000 sites during its second quarter of the current financial year.
“In the mobile segment, we added over ~14 Mn 4G customers and grew revenues by ~26%. Our focus on building the most aspirational brand in Indian Telecom to win quality customers is delivering results,” Gopal Vittal, CEO of Bharti Airtel, said in the release. “Our data consumption grew by 58% YoY which reflects the strong engagement of customers on our network.”
Bharti Airtel highlighted that its overall data traffic increased to 77.3PB per day in its second quarter in the current financial year. In the same period in the previous financial year, the overall data traffic on Airtel network was said to be at 48.9PB per day. The company said that the voice usage on its network was at 1005 minutes per user per month for the quarter ended September 30, 2020.
Bharti Airtel Extends LCO Partnership to 48 Cities Across India
The second-largest wireless operator in India highlighted that its Homes business segment that offers broadband and Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH) services registered a 7.3% YoY revenue growth. Airtel is said to have added 129,000 broadband users during its second quarter in the current financial year with its wired broadband subscriber base hitting 2.58 million.
The company said that it has inked “many more” partnerships with Local Cable Operators (LCO) in cities where the company is currently not present, extending its model to 48 cities across India.
“The company also focused on fast-track network expansion by rolling out Fibre Home Passes and upgrading existing copper network during the quarter,” Airtel said in its earnings release.
Meanwhile, it was highlighted that Airtel added 549,000 Direct-to-Home (DTH) users in its second quarter of the current financial year. The company said that its Airtel Digital TV user base has increased from 16.8 million in the previous quarter to 17.4 million in the quarter ended September 30, 2020.
Airtel also said that the Wynk platform registered 59.3 million monthly active users (MAUs) during the period ended September 30, 2020. Similarly, the Airtel Thanks platform and Airtel Xstream platform is said to have registered 81.6 million MAUs and 33.7 million MAUs respectively during the second quarter of the current financial year. The company also said that it added nine million Wynk users during its second quarter while the Airtel Thanks and Airtel Xstream platform witnessed eight million new users each.
