Bharti Airtel Subscriber Base Crosses 300 Million, Reports 13% YoY Drop in Revenue

As it stated earlier, Bharti Airtel, the country’s leading telecom operator today released its earnings call for the quarter that ended on March 31, 2018. In India, Airtel reported a 13.1% Year-on-Year drop in revenue when compared to last year’s revenue for the same period. Airtel reported a revenue of Rs 14,796 crore. During the earnings call, Airtel also confirmed that its subscriber base in India crossed 300 million, while the total subscriber base of the telco reached 413.8 million across 16 countries. Airtel also confirmed that it rolled out over 107,000 mobile broadband base stations in India during the last financial year. The telco made over Rs 24,000 crore investment in India last fiscal, the highest in a single year by the company.

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“In line with our goal of building market-leading 4G networks, with best in class speeds and capacity; while supporting the Digital India initiative, we have ended the financial year with our highest ever capital expenditure of Rs 240 Bn. We intend to continue the rollout momentum next year as well,” Gopal Vittal, MD and CEO, India & South Asia said in a statement.

Airtel, in the earnings, call also revealed that the Earnings Before Interest, Tax, Depreciation and Amortisation (EBITDA) has fallen by 22% to Rs 5,237.2 crore. The Earnings Before Interest and Tax (EBIT) also saw a downfall of 61% to Rs 1,013 crore, and lastly, the operating free cash flow showed a massive decline of 84% to Rs 615 crore for the quarter that ended on March 31, 2018. On the whole, Airtel reported a loss of Rs 652.3 crore in its operations in India and South Asia, a first loss in the last 15 years. Even Airtel’s Africa business registered a profit of 698.7 crore.