Bharti Airtel on Monday reported a 10% rise in fiscal second quarter profit as the surge in mobile data use continued.
Mobile data revenue in the three months to 30 September reached 38.06 billion rupees (€530.9 million), up 49.8% year-on-year. Mobile data revenue now accounts for 16% of Bharti Airtel’s group revenue, compared to 11.1% in the same period a year earlier.
In the telco’s home market of India, mobile data usage per customer for the quarter came in at 765 megabytes, up from 563 MB in the corresponding quarter last year. The number of mobile data customers increased to 51 million from 40.1 million.
Bharti Airtel’s overall customer base reached 340 million, up from 303.7 million a year ago. Its subscriber base in India increased 11.1% on-year to 235.2 million. In South Asia, which comprises Bharti Airtel’s operations in Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, the number of customers grew to 9.9 million from 7.7 million. Meanwhile, its Africa customer base increased to 80.8 million from 71.4 million.
The performance helped to drive group revenue up 4.3% year-on-year to INR238.4 billion. EBITDA increased to INR82.7 billion from INR77.5 billion, while net profit jumped 10.1% year-on-year to INR15.2 billion, helped by the sale of towers in Kenya, Uganda and Zambia.
Bharti Airtel’s Africa business, which reports in U.S. dollars, remains a cause of concern though.
Revenue for the quarter ended 30 September reached US$1.02 billion, up from $978 million in fiscal Q2 2014. Mobile data revenue increased by 40.6% year-on-year to $138 million.
However, operating expenses increased to $589 million from $548 million a year ago, while depreciation and amortisation charges grew to $181 million from $174 million. As a result, the quarterly net loss at Bharti Airtel’s Africa business widened to $170 million from $124 million a year earlier.
