News
India-based telco reports 44% rise in mobile data revenue, 76% rise in data traffic.
Bharti Airtel this week announced solid revenue growth during its fiscal fourth quarter, as mobile data use soared.
The India-based telco generated revenue of 249.6 billion rupees (€3.31 billion) in the three months to 31 March, up 8.4% year-on-year. Mobile data revenues surged 43.7% to INR44.34 billion, accounting for 17.8% of group revenue, compared to 13.4% in the same quarter a year earlier.
Mobile data traffic carried on Bharti Airtel’s networks during the quarter jumped to 178.1 billion megabytes, up 75.6% from the year-ago quarter.
At its India and South Asia business, revenue increased to INR187.42 billion from INR170.21 billion, while EBITDA came in at INR77.64 billion, compared to INR67.6 billion.
Bharti Airtel’s Indian mobile operation ended March with 251.2 million customers compared to 226 million at the end of March 2015. Fixed Internet customers and digital TV customers came in at 3.7 million and 11.7 million respectively. The mobile customer base at Bharti Airtel’s South Asian arm, which comprises its operations in Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, increased to 10.2 million from 8.6 million.
Bharti Airtel’s African business also had an encouraging quarter, growing revenue 3.8% year-on-year to INR64.51 billion. EBITDA increased by 10.3% to INR14.23 billion. Its mobile customer base increased to 80.6 million from 76.3 million.
Overall, Bharti Airtel ended March with a total subscriber base of 357.4 million, up from 324.4 million 12 months ago.
Group EBITDA climbed to INR91.88 billion from INR80.51 billion, while net profit increased to INR12.9 billion from INR12.55 billion.
