Bharti Airtel has just announced its quarterly financial results for Q3 FY22. The second-largest telco in India saw a very marginal increase in the total subscriber base in its India business, but the good thing is that the churn rate reduced to 2.9% as compared to 3% in the September quarter. Airtel’s average revenue per user (ARPU) from its mobile business in India has jumped to Rs 163 during the December quarter from Rs 153 in Q2 FY22.
However, Airtel has posted a dip in ARPU from its Home Services in Q3 FY22. From Rs 661 in Q2 FY22, the telco’s ARPU from Home Services has fallen to Rs 657 during the previous quarter. The same was the case with the Direct-to-Home (DTH) business. Airtel’s ARPU from its DTH services fell to Rs 146 in Q3 FY22 from Rs 148 in Q2 FY22.
Bharti Airtel’s Net Profit Down to Rs 830 Crore in Q3 FY22
During the quarter, the telco’s net profit dipped 2.8% YoY to Rs 830 crore in December FY22 from Rs 854 crore in December FY21. While the ARPU for Home Business fell, the overall revenues were up 40.4% YoY, led by strong customer additions.
The B2B segment of the company, Airtel Business, reported 13.4% YoY growth in revenues. There was a growth of 29.9 million in the number of 4G users YoY and 3 million QoQ to reach 195.5 million. As of December 2021, Airtel’s 61% of the mobile customers were 4G users.
The ARPU jump of Rs 10 despite the fact that the prepaid tariff hikes were implemented only in the last month of the quarter suggests strong acceptance of the new tariffs. Out of the entire mobile customer base, 94.6% of users were prepaid, and the remaining were postpaid users.
Gopal Vittal, MD and CEO, Bharti Airtel, said that the company is generating healthy free cash flow now, which has enabled it to pay the spectrum liabilities to the government, resulting in a reduced interest burden.
