Bharti Airtel today said its Capex (capital spending) fell 5.4 percent to $629 million in the first quarter ended June 30, 2015.

The Capex for Indian operations of Airtel increased to INR 30,410 million from INR 30,285 million with Capex for Airtel India remaining flat at INR 29,418 million.

Airtel India has invested INR 22,166 million for mobile networks and mobile money.

Gopal Vittal, MD and CEO, Airtel India & South Asia, said: “Our Capex program is mostly directed at increasing 3G and 4G coverage and improving all-round customer experience.”

The number of telecom sites increased to 147,616 in Q1 FY 2016 from 146,539 in Q4 FY 2015. Out of this, the number of 3G sites increased to 52,886 from 48,825.

Airtel India

Airtel said its 3G subscriber base rose 10 percent to 21.36 million from 19.44 million in the previous quarter.

Data customer base of Airtel increased 7 percent to 49.47 million from 46.38 million. Data Average Revenue per User (ARPU) rose 3 percent to Rs 181. Data usage per customer grew 8 percent to 706 MB. Voice Average Revenue per User (ARPU) fell 2 percent to Rs 148 though Minutes on the network rose 5 percent to 290,802 million. Total Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) was flat at Rs 198 in India.

India revenues rose 10 percent to INR 137,987 million — supported by 22.2 percent growth in enterprise business and 15.8 percent increase in Digital TV business.

Mobile data revenue of Airtel India rose 67.3 percent to Rs 2,609 crore – lifted by data customer growth of 25.8 percent and traffic growth of 83.4 percent. Mobile Data revenues contribute to 19.2 percent of Mobile India revenues against 12.4 percent.

Airtel Africa

Capex for Airtel Africa dropped 6 percent to $150 million during the first quarter of fiscal 2016.

The company added 711 3G sites.

Africa revenues grew 1 percent – supported by 48.5 percent increase in data revenues to $128 million, data customer growth of 31.9 percent and traffic growth of 111.6 percent. Data ARPU increased to $3.3 from $3. Data revenues contribute to 12.9 percent of Africa revenues against 8.8 percent.

Airtel Money customer base in Africa increased to 7 million, boosting the total transaction values on Airtel Money platform by 72.6 percent to $3.3 billion.

Christian de Faria, MD and CEO, Airtel Africa, said: “In the first quarter, Airtel Africa has set the pace for the year, with customer base growing by 13.4 percent to 78.3 million. Customer churn has been reduced from 7.0 percent to 5.4 percent, as a result of customer lifecycle management programs.”

Airtel consolidated

Airtel said its consolidated revenue grew 3.1 percent to Rs 23,671 crore fuelled by 56.9 percent rise in mobile data revenues that reached Rs 3,459 crore and data traffic growth of 86.5 percent.

Baburajan K
[email protected]