Bharti Airtel, the second-largest telecom operator in India, has announced its financial results for Q2 FY23. The telco has reported its average revenue per user (ARPU) figure to be Rs 190 during the quarter. This means that Airtel is again leading in the ARPU segment. Airtel's quarterly revenues were Rs 34,527 crore, up by 21.9% YoY. Airtel's India business posted quarterly revenues of Rs 24,333 crore, up by 22.3% YoY. Mobile services revenues in India were up 24.8% YoY, which was led by continuous 4G subscriber addition and an increase in ARPU. Revenues for Airtel Business, the B2B arm of Bharti Airtel, were up by 16.8%, backed by robust demand for data and connectivity-related solutions. Airtel's Homes business continued to grow, up by 38.9% YoY, led by strong customer additions.
The consolidated EBITDA (earnings before interest tax and depreciation) for Airtel stood at Rs 17,721 crore, where the India business posted an EBITDA of Rs 12,606 crore. The net profit for Bharti Airtel during the quarter was Rs 2,145 crore, up by 89.1% YoY. Let's take a look at some of the key metrics around Airtel's services in India.
Key Metrics for Airtel in Q2 FY23: Mobile ARPU, Homes Business and More
During Q2 FY23, Airtel said that its 4G data customers were up by 17.8 million users YoY and 5 million users QoQ. Airtel's 64% of customer base was 4G user base. As already mentioned, the ARPU went up to Rs 190, which is very close to the telco's target of Rs 200 in the short term. Mobile data consumption was up by 19.6% YoY, where the consumption per customer stood at 20.3GB per month.
Airtel said that its Homes Business crossed the 5 million customers milestone with 417k customer net additions in Q2 FY23. The Airtel Digital TV customer base stood at 15.8 million during the quarter. Airtel Payments Bank continues to grow rapidly through customer engagement - increasing monthly transacting users by 60% YoY. Bharti Airtel had paid Rs 8,312 crore to the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) as part of its 5G spectrum payment of four years in advance.
Gopal Vittal, MD and CEO, Bharti Airtel, India & South Asia, said, "We have delivered yet another quarter with competitive revenue growth and improved margins. Our consolidated revenue grew sequentially by 5.3% and EBITDA margin expanded to 51.3%. The consistency of our execution is driven by the strength and resilience of our portfolio. Our B2B and Homes business continued their strong growth momentum while Mobile ARPU expanded to 190 on the back of premiumization and deep customer understanding.
We are now rolling out 5G and are confident that Airtel 5G Plus will deliver the best experience in India while being kinder to the environment. I do believe that 5G technology has the potential of bringing tremendous innovation into India. At the same time we remain concerned about the low ROCE that our business delivers due to pricing that is the lowest in the world. Given the large investments required to drive digital adoption in India we believe there is a need for tariff correction."
