Bharti Airtel, the second-largest telecom operator, is set for a strong future. The Q3 FY22 results seem only to be a trailer. The confidence that the telco’s board has in future performance is evident from the approval of a $1 billion (Rs 7500 crore approx) fundraise via debt instruments. The thing that’s worth considering here is that the average revenue per user (ARPU) jump that came during the quarter is only reflecting the revenue boost from the last month (December). The full impact will be seen in the March quarter of FY22, which should show an even higher ARPU.
Airtel Black a Long Term Play from the Telco
Bharti Airtel is building an ecosystem of services and products much like Apple. Airtel is playing the long game with its bundled service called Airtel Black. What Bharti Airtel ultimately wants is high paying customers and, in turn, providing them with quality service.
We have talked about this before; Airtel Black is not a bundled service to make things cheap or more affordable. It is about bringing comfort, convenience, and great service for the users. Under Airtel Black, users can subscribe to a Direct-to-Home (DTH), postpaid mobile, and fiber broadband connections. All of these services are bundled within a single bill. Note that in the case of postpaid services, users can opt for multiple connections.
This is a quality service play from the telco to attract high-paying customers. Airtel Black plans will enable the company in earning more out of each customer as well as upsell other services and products.
Airtel’s Google Deal to Put the Company in a Better Position
Airtel is one of the prominent telecom operators in the country. It has the highest ARPU amongst all competitors when it comes to mobile business and is also adding new subscribers at a steady rate. During the third quarter, the subscriber churn rate dipped a little to 2.9% from 3% in Q2 FY22.
With all the money that it has raised in the last few months and more that it is planning to raise in the foreseeable future, Airtel will come into a much better position.
Gopal Vittal, MD and CEO of Bharti Airtel, has already said that the company has been generating free cash flow now. This is why it can take on debt instead of giving up more equity.
The Google deal would allow Bharti Airtel to come up with a better strategy for partnering with the smartphone vendors and offering subsidies on the purchase of 4G devices.
